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21st WORLD FESTIVAL ON THE BEACH
Mondello – 15th –21st MAY 2006
www.wwfestival.com
Windsurf: Mistral class
BRUCE KENDALL, TRAINER IN MONDELLO IS STILL A LEGEND IN WINDSURF
It was in 1984 in Los Angeles, California, the Olympics that were being
held registered the first windsurf entry in the Olympic program.
A new entry in all aspects, a little like that of a young guy from New
Zealand who was only twenty years old at the time, and who in this first
windsurf Olympic stage took the lowest step on the podium, winning a
bronze medal and coming in behind Stephan Van den Berg from Holland, who
took the gold medal, and Randall Steele from the USA who took the silver
medal.
This athlete from the antipodes is called Bruce Kendall and four years
later, in Seoul, took the most important medal an athlete can get. He
didn’t quite make it for the same medal in his third Olympics in
Barcelona, but however it turned out to be an important moment for the
Kendall family with his sister Barbara Anne, taking the gold medal,
being followed with great attention from her brother, he became part of
the technical staff of the New Zealand national team. Thanks to his
advice New Zealand took four Olympic medals and seven world titles with
Barbara Kendall and Aaron McIntosh.
Bruce Kendall is in Mondello just now taking Renč Appel’s place, coach
to Hong Kong and who for a period planned a serious preparation and
development for these athletes. Bruce Kendall has come back to Sicily as
a coach, a place he knows well and feels at home after taking part along
with his sister Barbara Anne and Aaron McIntosh in numerous editions of
the World Festival on the Beach. Last years edition saw another windsurf
legend Nikos Kaklamanakis, as a coach, and today Mondello welcomes the
New Zealander while he watches with great attention his group from Hong
Kong in the lead of the Nation Cup and the European Mistral
Championships, he’s also thinking of the near future where he’ll be with
Aaron Mc Intosh following once again as an athlete the next Olympic
Games to be held in 2008 in Beijing in the Tornado class. After years of
sporting rivalry on the windsurf tables, the two champions from New
Zealand will be together in the water to win a place in the next
Olympics.
“ Mondello is a particular place and it’s fascinating, I know it really
well as I’ve participated many times the windsurf races which are
organised here. In these past few days there hasn’t been much wind but
the athletes from Hong Kong are well prepared as they have been training
for quite a while with method and the wind conditions that we find here
could be very near to what we will find in Beijing 2008” said Bruce
Kendall at the end of today’s skipper meeting, he then went on to say “
as for my presence in the games, we have started the qualifications
campaign with Aaron McIntosh and we hope to find ourselves a space in
the fastest and most spectacular class of the Olympic setting”.
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