CHASING THE WINDS: Those who are interested in sports that are a bit unconventional, here is an interesting development.
It is announced that men’s and women’s kiteboarding will be included for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016, though at the expense of windsurfing. It is estimated that there are more than 1.5 million competitive and hobby participants globally for the sport, which sees around 100,000 new learners every year, though numbers are hard to pin down due to the independent nature of the sport. Described as a mixture between windsurfing, surfing and wakeboarding, freestyle kiteboarders perform daring tricks such as the ‘hasselhoff’ and the ‘unhooked raley’, though it is the fast-paced course racing discipline that will appear in Rio. — Reuters