People gather at the closing ceremony of the Festival yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula
The Aspire 1st International Kite Festival drew to a close yesterday, capping an incredible five days of unique sporting spectacle and widespread involvement in community activities.
Over five days, more than 40,000 visitors enjoyed an incredible range of technical feats showcased by some of the world’s best professional kite flyers, in addition to a hugely varied programme of community events and activities. French competitor wins gold in the individual category and Colombian team wins gold in the pairs & teams category
Large crowd gathered for the closing ceremony during which prizes were awarded to the winning teams. In the individual category, Richard Debray from France won gold, Roger Tessa-Gambassi also from France won silver and Adam Ahmad from Malaysia won bronze. In the pairs & teams category, Andesky team from Colombia won gold, Ex-Grads team from the UK won silver whilst Paire’Spire team from France won bronze.
Following months of planning, the competition saw teams of top international kite flyers from 13 countries compete in a range of individual and team sports kite events at the Festival – which took place between 25th and 29th April at Aspire Park.
Another major success for the festival was the level of involvement of young people from around the country. A specially designed schools programme attracted large numbers of schools to participate in a series of fun activities. More than 500 schools were invited to take part, including Tamakon Comprehensive School for children with special needs.
