Dutch pilot wins Acro World Cup for the first time in history

Kings of the Box - second stop of the new « over the ground » format

On Saturday 17th of June the second stop of the Acro World Tour 2023 came to Allevard, France for the very first time. Once again it was an event called « over the ground » which means that athletes were flying above the ground and not above water like the Nest Games from 10th of June 2023. Once more the event was a total success adding an extra confirmation that the Acro World Tour is perfectly suited to be flown above the ground.

Luke De Weert wins the day

Competition wise it was a very well organized event that saw Luke De Weert (NED) take the win after 3 tasks flown with a very good altitude allowing athlete to perform up to 8 tricks per runs. It all came down to the very last run of the competition with Egor Posokhin (NA) leading the competition with almost 2 points in front of Axel Coste (FRA) , Luke De Weert and Théo de Blic (FRA) after run 2. But the Dutchman managed to put on a very clean last run with Egor failing to fly his best to hold on to his first place. In the end Luke managed to grab his first even Acro World Tour win and a first ever win in a World Tour event by a Dutchman while Egor had to settle for second place, his best ever position on a World Tour Event and Axel Coste grabbed 3rd.

The battle for the title is still on.

Thanks to his win during that event and the counter performance of Théo de Blic who failed to be on the podium of a World Tour event for the first time since August 2018. Luke also took the lead of the Acro World Tour 2023. But with only 1,2 point difference between both pilots the battle for the title is still raging. With still 3 events to go in the Acro World Tour anything can happen and Egor or Axel could also be fighting for that top spot.

Marco Papa escapes the elimination zone - Maxime Casamayou is in the red zone.

In the fight to stay in the 2024 Acro World Tour for the winner is Marco Papa (ITA) who managed to get himself out of the elimination zone thanks to a steady performance on Kings of Box. Marco who finished last in the Nest Games the week prior really needed a strong result in order to stay in the fight for the qualification into the 2024 Acro World Tour. In the end it is Maxime Casamayou (FRA, rookie and winner of the Acro World Qualifier 2022) who ends up in the red zone after a disastrous third run that saw him loose over 1,4point to the Italian. Meanwhile rookie Vincent Tornare (CHE) managed to extend his gap to the red zone and will probably be able to spend the next 1 month and half until the upcoming competition a bit more relaxed thanks to his 3 points margin on Maxime.

Everything could change in AcroMax

The next stop of the Acro World Tour will start on the 10th of August in AcroMax. AcroMax will be the return of the classic Acro World Tour format with runs being performed above the water and raft landing allowed. The ranking could see itself being shaken up after AcroMax as it is a notoriously difficult place to fly with turbulent and unpredictable flying conditions as well as a very tricky raft landing due to the strong valley wind and the raft being in the lea-side of trees. Historically AcroMax has always seen big upset in the ranking and could be the place where we see Bicho Carrera (CZ) making a come back to the top spot as it is normally a place where he performs well, as shown in 2021 when he grabbed the 2021 World Champion title in AcroMax.