XXI World Festival On The Beach PALERMO - Italy  15-21  MAGGIO 2006

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Press Release n.23   18/5/2006

PHOTO

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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