Max Maeder wins second straight title since Paris Olympics
Singapore kitefoiler Maximilian Maeder has won back-to-back titles in two competitions since Paris 2024 by coming out tops at the Formula Kite Asian Championships in Daishan, China, on Sept 22.
Having led the nine-man standings with eight wins from 12 races in the opening series, the Olympic bronze medallist needed only one race victory in the final day’s medal series to clinch the continental crown.
However, with the winds deemed too strong for competition on Sept 22, the medal series could not take place and Maeder, 18, was declared champion of the men’s kite category, followed by China’s Zhang Haoran and Wu Jiangang in second and third place respectively.
Maeder, who was the only non-China athlete among the nine kitefoilers in his category, had paid tribute to his rivals after topping the opening series.
“The Chinese sailors are really good and fearless. They definitely have guts; they push so hard, I am impressed they don’t crash. I think that if they join us overseas and train with us, they will be a very formidable force,” Maeder, who trains in Europe, said on the Sail-World website.
In the 2023 edition, Maeder had finished second behind China’s Huang Qibin, who placed sixth this time around.
Two weeks earlier, Maeder had claimed the KiteFoil World Series Austria title in Traunsee on Sept 8, about a month after becoming Singapore’s youngest Olympic medallist at 17 years old.
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