In its 12th edition the paddle IMUA was once again a full success. Participants came from all over the US and the world to be part of this extra ordinary ocean race. The race sold out one week prior to the start as conditions for the legendary Maliko Run looked very favorable.
The most remarkable thing how ever was how the demand for SUP Downwind Foiling exploded. There were 135 participants registered at the event. These are numbers nobody would have imagined in their wildest dreams a year ago, let alone two years ago. In Wing Foiling we counted 51 men and 13 women. In SUP there was still a respectful number of 21 participants. What was particularly nice was that the well known Peruvian Athlete Itzel Delgado (interview to follow) found his way to Hawaii to participate in all 3 downwind races of the summer.
Taking a brief look at the names on the top, it was the locals who dominated the race course. Kane De Wilde finished the run in less than 25 minutes ahead for Finn Spencer. On the girls side it was Annie Reickert with a time of just about 30 minutes. The bigger surprise might be that last years M2O winner James Casey only came in 7th place and the second places Oskar Johansson in 12th. Super star Kai Lenny came in 18th just one second faster than Armie Armstrong.
Now we have all eyes on the Pailolo Channel and the Kaiwi Channel next week as all the top names will be part of the KOA KAI Tripple Crown this year.
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