Half the field make goal at the Paragliding World Championships in Spain but 32 zeroed for breaking airspace rules
Charles Cazaux (FR) won the first task of the Paragliding World Championships in Spain’s Piedrahita on an Ozone R11.
The top five were Charles, Rafal Luckos (PL), Neil Roberts (GB), Josh Cohn (US) and Lucu Donini (IT).
The task scored 994 points and was flown in a staggeringly fast 2:52:24 by the winner.
Seventy-eight pilots made goal with an ill fated Kiyoshi Nariyama from Japan falling a frustrating 500m short. Ouch! Bad luck Kiyoshi after such an epic flight.
But 32 pilots had their scores zeroed for infringing airspace around Avila. Several big names were amongst those penalised, in particular designers Gin Seok Song and Torsten Siegel.
Torsten was a definite contender for the title, having come frustratingly close in the past, but the airspace infringement and subsequent penalty are going to be very hard to come back from.
Frank Brown takes us on a tour of the mat at Piedrahita on 6 July 2011
The airspace made for some tricky flying as it sat right above pilots as they were hoovered upwards in strong climbs. Brad Gunnuscio blogged:
“I left a thermal at 2,900m and went right to the limit with my glider at pulley to pulley. The Valic brother next to me did a full stall to not break the limit and I wasnt prepared to do that and luckily I stopped climbing right at 3,048!!!
You can imagine my relief… after that I started leaving the climbs at 2,700m and still was getting ripped into the sky, I started looking for gliders sinking and taking any sinky line I could get.”
• XCmag.com’s Paragliding World Championships 2011 blog
• Who’s flying for your country? Check out the pilot list
• Follow the action through the official website: www.piedrahita2011.com
• Got news? Send it to us at news@xccontent.local
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