Leo Hoarau wins BGD Weightless 2025

Leo Hoarau (92kg) was the overall winner of the sixth edition of BGD Weightless, which took place in Laragne Monteglin, France from 2-8 August 2025. Sergiu Enea (104kg) won the Sports class, Jeroen Minnema (98kg) topped the Standard class and BGD 1 were the top-ranked team. 

Weightless is open to EN-D gliders and below, and uses multiple radius turnpoints (MRT) for different weight classes. The aim is “to level out the playing field for pilots of different weights” according to organisers. All pilots fly the same course, but lighter pilots fly less distance because the turnpoint cylinders are bigger than for heavier pilots.

Four tasks were scored of 45.41km, 31.83km, 67.75km and 49.74km.

There were nine weight classes, with the pilots in the lowest-weight class (66-69kg all up) flying 17.8% less distance than those in the top weight class (120kg+ all up).

1. 120kg+ (4 pilots)
2. 110-119kg (9 pilots)
3. 101-109kg (11 pilots)
4. 92-100kg (17 pilots)
5. 85-91kg (14 pilots)
6. 79-84kg (5 pilots)
7. 74-78kg (3 pilots)
8. 70-73kg (3 pilots)
9. 66-69kg (1 pilot)

The majority of pilots were in the mid-to-upper weight classes, and the winners all came from these classes.

BGD said that “overall, this system worked out well.” They explained: “The amount of compensation of 17.8% worked pretty well, though the very light pilots still found a slight disadvantage in strong conditions.

“This competition demonstrated the effectiveness of this system. Statistical analysis of this event’s results will enable us to tweak the scoring system even further for next time.”

They added: “We have been developing the multiple radius turnpoints for ten years, and it is still evolving and being fine-tuned.”

RESULTS

Overall

1. Leo Hoarau, FRA, Ozone Zeno 2, 92kg, group 4
2. Florin Berinde, FRA, Ozone Zeno 2, 105kg, group 3
3. Sergiu Enea, BEL, Ozone Photon, 104kg, group 3

Sport Class (Up to EN C)

1. Sergiu Enea, BEL, Ozone Photon, 104kg, group 3
2. Guillaume Funck, FRA, BGD Cure 3, 93kg, group 4
3. Bruce Goldsmith, GBR, BGD Cure 3, 93kg, group 4

Standard Class (up to EN B)

1. Jeroen Minnema, NED, Niviuk Ikuma 3P, 98kg, group 4
2. Lauris Pumpurs, LAT, Niviuk Rook 4, 98kg, group 4
3. Heather Atkins, GBR, Ozone Rush 6, 85kg, group 5

Teams

1. BGD 1 (Tyr Goldsmith, Cesar Arevalo, Bruce Goldsmith, Paula Pintaric)
2. BGD 2 (Guillaume Funck, Kayvan Arianpour, Edward Day, Milly Wallace)
3. GER/AUT (Samuel Tanner, Daniel Maraz, Jonathan Kalmbach)

See the results. More at flybgd.com.