Well we’d better get started on this subject hadn’t we? Like, set up a list of bookie’s favourites so that everyone can laugh afterwards at my complete ignorance…
I’ll be listing some of the obvious, and some of the less obvious, here below. If you’re not mentioned it is probably my bad judgement – I hope you win all the same! After all, if I got this list right it’d be boring. Also please note that this is a totally subjective work of fiction based on assumptions and pure guessing, so if you get annoyed at me for something I’m writing here you should rather be amused that I’m bothering with your name at all!
Lets start by the insiders who are really hungry:
Andi Aebi – he has proven that he can win (PWC 08) and I was really impressed by his patience in Niska Banja last summer. Patience is important in this FAI comp game!
Jeremie Lager – probably even more hungry than Andi; but my guess is he hasn’t yet got the stamina necesarry for coming top 7 every day for 12 days in a row…In a few years if he keeps it up like he’s going now.
Simon Issenhuth – same as above: hungry, but young and perhaps a bit on the gung-ho side for FAI championships
Brothers Valic – they are hungry, they have proven that they can fly well in Valle (Monarca last year) and they are arguably the most talented pilots to emerge in recent years. Yet for some reason I fear they’ll be TOO hungry and bomb out once each. I hope I’m wrong.
Outsiders who are hungry:
Yassen Savov – he won the Monarca and is likely to be feeling on top of the world, but it could also be that his form peaked 3-4 weeks too early.
Primoz Podobnik – he’s living in a Valic shadow, and that can’t be fun. I bet he’s eager to get outta there
Micky von Wachter – very fast, relaxed pilot who may even be able to hold it together if he’s in the lead – but he’s an outsider all the same
Any of the US boys – they know Valle and are keen to prove themselved on their home turf. I have never flown with Farmer (Matt Beechinor) but I have heard that he’s good, and I know that Brad is fast. Consistency is going to be the hurdle for all of these, and staying cool in case they get a good start to the comp and are in the top rankings from day one.
Outsiders who could surprise:
Nevil Hulett – he has taken a lot of shit from all of us for years for nevilling, and then he goes and flies a bloody brilliant world record all on his own just to let the air out of that balloon. Turning up with the
feel-good account all charged up to max is not a bad point-of-entry, and nevilling is a very important skill to have for an FAI championship
André Rainsford-Alberts – another of South Africas finest, he’s in my view possibly the fastest paraglider pilot on Planet Earth. I’m certain he’ll be taking at least one task and maybe more, and I hope he’ll not f*ck it all up on other days, but truth be told consistency is going to be his main challenge. If only we could morph him and Nevil…
Ronny Helgesen – he was a SkyGod when I learnt flying in the late eighties, he knows Valle better than anyone else, he’s flying a brand new UP proto that is probably fantastic, and he’s been on a surprising upwards curve for the last 3-4 years considering he’s been doing comps for more than 20 years.
Mark Hayman – fellow XCMag blogger the Hymenator is very consistent, has extensive competition experience (snowboarding, but the mind game is the same) and he’s the consistent one of the Brits
The Usual Suspects:
Chrigel Maurer – no need to go into details here
Olli Rössel – if he’s hungry enough. He certainly has the skills
Torsten Siegel – same as above, the hunger is the unknown factor
Tomas Brauner – he can do it for sure, only I have said that many times before and he hasn’t. I wonder what’s keeping him?
Luca Donini – not an outsider any more if you look purely at his track record, yet he’s still somehow an outsider. Probably because most of the others are more or less full-time pilots and Luca is not. I see that Luca has changed to a Boomer, could be a good call
Greg Blondeau – obvious isn’t it? Although his style in the past has been racier than what is good for this sort of event he did prove that he could do it in Niska Banja. My guess is his chances depend a lot on how the first day goes. Can’t really see Greg working his way up from behind.
Pilot who would have done it already if they were ever going to:
Stephan Wyss – he’s f*cking brilliant yet he rarely gets onto the podium. Needs some intensive mind coaching to get his mind around to accepting the fact that he deserves it as much as the next man
Martin Orlik – hmmm, 5-6 years ago I would have put him further up the list. I don’t think he’s so hungry anymore
Myself 🙂 – can fly well if the bug bites me, but it seems to be an elusive bug. Not having thermalled since the Nordic Open 2008 probably isn’t the best preparation either.
Nikolay Shorokov – he’d have done it by now if he was ever to do it, just like the next person on the list:
Frankie Brown – Frankie’s move away from Gin was probably good for his personal financial situation, but it hasn’t helped his score card. Who knows what André Rottet has concocted for the Worlds?
Russ Ogden – another one of those pilots who, like fellow UK rep Wagga Watts, has the objective skills to win a meet like this, yet fairly consistently manages to botch it quite severely. Like I wrote for Stephan
Wyss I think it is a matter of some quality coaching mumbo-jumbo to make his (their) mind(s) accept that there’s really no reason why it couldn’t be them. I don’t want to be the one coaching Wagga though – he’ll just hit me in my face
That makes 21 pilots on my own personal short list, plus the 6-7 pilots on the “should have already” list. Can’t accuse me of excessive elitism, that’s bloody half the field! And by the way, among the girls Ewa is the more natural pilot but Anja is hungrier. Claudia can learn too, but she’ll need mind coaching 🙂 to believe in herself. My personal favourite is Elisa Houdry, just because she’s such a mellow and humble person. Humble is great in many situations but it isn’t what you want for winning top sports events though, so Elisa stick the humbleness in the drawer for a bit there and go and kick some bottom.
Still no news from the UP guys who have been flying their new toys in Valle today – maybe they have forgotten me???
Cheers from Mads S
