Russian athletes to attempt historic kitesurfing crossing Cuba to Mexico

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 7 (ACN) A veteran quartet of Russian kitesurfing athletes will face this week a crossing of more than 200 kilometers from Cape San Antonio, on the western tip of Cuba, to the Mexican beach of Cancun.

The feat will be a milestone in kitesurfing, a sport in which the wind is harnessed with a kite to glide over the water on a board.

In a press conference today in Havana, the captain of the Russian national team, Konstantin Aksenov, highlighted the honor of being in a nation that has been a socio-cultural reference for him since his childhood.

Through the flow of the Gulf of Mexico in the Yucatan Strait, the team, equipped with communication and tracking devices and followed by an escort boat, expects the crossing to take 12 to 14 hours, depending on wind speed, wave height and other weather conditions that will determine the day of the race.

The crossing will pay tribute to the legendary French kiter and surfer Arnaud de Rosnay and will serve as a boost to kitesurfing between countries, amid a growing boom for the sport's debut at the Olympics, scheduled for the Paris 2024 edition.