Tasks of 62.6 km and 107.6 km were set for Friday and Saturday in Denizli, with Sunday being a rest day. Seiko Fukuoka Naville continued her domination of the women, winning both of the tasks to make it four out of four so far. Joachim Oberhauser (IT) and Alex Hofer (CH) won overall in tasks three and four, both on Ozone R10.2s.

Task 3 was another fast 62.6 km task, which saw 100 people in goal, Joachim making it in 1h 26′ 25″. Seiko’s time was 1h 34′ 23″, only eight minutes after Joachim but in 80th place overall. The Valic brothers came in second and third, on their Niviuk Icepeaks.

With Saturday 25 September dawning bright and clear, a longer task of 107.6 km was set. Unfortunately difficult conditions were encountered on the third leg and most people landed about halfway along it. The furthest flight of the day was Alex Hofer’s, at 60.79 km. Seiko’s 58.33 km put her in 54th position overall and first woman.

Below is Philippe Broers’ video of task 4 (part 2). More on Paragliding World Cup TV.

RESULTS Superfinal Task 3

Open

1. Joachim Oberhauser IT – Ozone Mantra R10.2
2. Urban Valic SL – Niviuk Icepeak
3. Aljaz Valic SL – Niviuk Icepeak

Women

1. Seiko Fukuoka Naville FR – Ozone Mantra R10.2 (80th overall)
2. Marina Olexina RU – Gin Boomerang 7 (84th overall)
3. Petra Slivova CZ – Niviuk Icepeak (85th overall)

Top team were Spälti (Stefan Wyss, Michael Sigel, Alex Hofer, Regula Strasser)

Task 4
Open

1. Alex Hofer CH – Ozone Mantra R10.2
2. Craig Morgan GB – Ozone Mantra R10
3. Julien Wirtz FR – Ozone Mantra R10.2

Women

1. Seiko Fukuoka Naville FR – Ozone Mantra R10.2
2. Petra Slivova CZ – Niviuk Icepeak
3. Renata Kuhnova CZ – Axispara Mercury

Top team were Inglorious Bastards (Helmut Eicholzer, Torsten Siegel, Thomas Brandlehner)

www.paraglidingworldcup.org

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Britain's Kirsty Cameron tops the podium, flanked by Spaniards Esther Garaizar and Beatriz Garcia, at the first women's paragliding open in Ager.

Britain’s Kirsty Cameron has won the first female-only paragliding open that was held in Ager in the Spanish Pyrenees, both open and serial classes, winning herself a new Sup’Air harness and Flymaster B1 nav GPS-vario.

Spanish pilots, Esther Garaizar and Beatriz Garcia, were second and third respectively, both also on serial class gliders. Britain’s Ruth Churchill-Dower topped the sports class category,

The competition finished on Friday 27 August, having had four tasks which ranged from 38 to 100 km, wind unfortunately depriving pilots of the last potential task day on the Friday.

The field of pilots was not huge,only 36 pilots being on the final results table, but judging by the blogs and Facebook comments, a good time was had by all, and those who attended seem to be looking forward to attending the next event (it seems there will be one) and pilots who missed out this time promising to swell numbers next time.

www.womenspgopen.org

The second competition of the 2010 Paragliding World Cup tour finished today in Japan, with only two tasks flown. France’s Lucas Bernardin (Ozone) was the first-placed Open pilot, and Tomomi Masuko (JP, flying Gin) top female.

Lucas Bernardin of France and Japan's Tomomi Masuko, happy winners of PWC Japan 2010

France was also the first-placed nation, despite several of the country’s top pilots, such as Luc Armant and Charles Cazaux, competing in the Europeans instead which are still going on in Abtenau, Austria at the moment (25 May – 5 June). Japan and Korea were 2nd and 3rd nations.

The two tasks of 64 and 49 km were held yesterday and today (28 and 29 May), following an early start this morning for everyone to move to Mount Fuji.

Philippe Broers has documented the event on video in his unique way. One of his videos is above, and others can be seen on his Vimeo channel (videos 74 to 83) or on the PWC website.

A reminder of the 2010 PWC Tour dates:

PARAGLIDING WORLD CUP (AMERICA)

03-10 April – Pocos de Caldas / Brazil – Brazilian World Cup
17-24 July – Chelan / USA – American World Cup

PARAGLIDING WORLD CUP (ASIA)

22-29 May – Happo-Mt Fuji / Japan – Japanese World cup
02-09 June – Linzhou / China – Chinese World Cup

PARAGLIDING WORLD CUP (EUROPE)

19-26 June – Drama / Greece – Greek World Cup
03-10 July – San potito / Italy – Italian World Cup
07-14 August – Serra da Estrela / Portugal – Portuguese World Cup

SUPERFINAL :

21 Sept-2 Oct – Denizli / Turkey

www.paraglidingworldcup.org

Larry Pino goes for a ride at the 2010 European Paragliding Championships - tracked in real-time on Google Earth

Speaking to Cross Country magazine in issue 129 organiser Stefan Brandlehener revealed the local club had spent €12,000 on tracking devices – the Meitrack GT60 – that work on the mobile phone network.

The result is minute-by-minute tracking of all 145 pilots as they fight for dominance of the Austrian skies.

Larry Pino lands safely under reserve as seen on Google Earth

The safety aspect of live tracking is the main reason CIVL, the body responsible for paragliding and hang gliding competition, gave it the go-ahead. Concerns over ground-to-air ‘guiding’ or possible advantages gained by the tracking system were outweighed by the considerable safety advantage of knowing where all pilots are all the time.

Two years ago a pilot went missing at a Paragliding World Cup leg in Spain but the alert was not raised for 24 hours. Confusion over the traditional ‘sign-in’ process meant organisers thought the pilot had already checked back in. That and other similar incidents have kept the issue of tracking systems at the top of the agenda for competition organisers. But technological shortcomings and expense have so far stood in the way of developing a ‘perfect’ system.

Organisers of the Europeans in Abtenau however hope to show the way to a new breed of competitions broadcast online. Stefan expects Vario / GPS manufacturers to one day soon incorporate the technology into flying instruments, and for scoring in the future also to be done in real time.

Meanwhile, all hopes are on the weather getting better. After a good practice day yesterday the first task was cancelled today. The Women’s Hang Gliding World Championships, also held in the Alps, finished at the weekend after two weeks of terrible weather and no flying. Organisers were forced to brush the launches clear of unseasonal deep snow in an attempt to get the pilots in the air, but to no avail.

Full live tracking of the Europeans is available on Google Earth through the European Paragliding Championships 2010 website.

Visit
European Paragliding Championships 2010

Pilot list

Europeans 2010 YouTube channel

Read Cross Country issue 129 online or on your iPad

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