Timo Leonetti was one of the brightest young stars in the international paragliding scene. Only four years ago, aged just 17, he shot to attention in the international free-flight world when he flew six 400km flights in one season in Brazil. Launching by tow from Assú, his longest flight was 459km and was flown on 8 November 2020.
Flown early in the XContest season, which runs from October to October, it put him at the top of the XContest leaderboard – where he stayed for the rest of the year. Those big flights were enough for him to win the 2021 Serial Class competition and put him in second place overall. It was a remarkable debut for such a young pilot.
The big numbers in Brazil don’t do justice to the story of that first season, however. Over the course of a year he logged 79 XC flights, 30 of them longer than 100km. That included 11 200km flights, eight 300km flights, and the six 400km flights. He flew in the flatlands of Brazil, the...
