Thursday 11th November’s task, the fifth to count in the Paragliding World Championships, was another difficult one with weak conditions. Nobody made it all the way round the 51km task. Current leader Russell Ogden (GB) flew furthest at 37.3km, reaffirming his position at the top of the scoreboard. Luc Armant, Julien Wirtz and Honorin Hamard of the French team were close behind.
This day’s scores also reflect the overall scores as we go into the final task: Russell is 21 points ahead of his Ozone workmates Honorin Hamard and Luc Armant of Team France. Julien Wirtz, also Team France, is fourth, and the UK’s Seb Ospina is fifth. Yael Margelisch (CH) leads Seiko Fukuoka (FR) by 96 points in the Women’s rankings and the United Kingdom are first-ranked Nation.
Task report from Ruth Jessop:
After several days of poor weather, it was possible to see the jungle-covered Loma Bola ridge this morning, so a 51km task was set going south, then back north.
A famous magician on launch predicted before the task started that there was a 50:50 chance of anyone making it round. His fortune-telling skills were spot on. Those who got the furthest round landed just after the first turnpoint, 37km around the course.
In the prophetic words of young American pilot Marcos Rosenkjer, today’s task would be a real struggle-fest, with weak conditions right around the course.
It was a day of marking their adversaries, for those still in with a chance of a good ranking. For those less fortunate, it was a day of mission impossible, finding thermals for their team.
Both Russell Ogden and Yael Margelisch held on to their overall top spots on the leaderboard and team UK consolidated their lead in the national rankings.
This time tomorrow we will have two new World Champions. In the overall rankings, it’s all down to Russell Ogden and Honorin Hamard. In the ladies’ rankings, it’s all up to the top ten and the national rankings are wide open. The forecast is good, let’s see what the thermals bring.
Those who won the day today were the pilots with a combination of good distance points and lead-out points. As nobody got to the goal, there were no time points.
TASK RESULTS
OVERALL
1st Russell Ogden (GB)
2nd Luc Armant (FR)
3rd Julien Wirtz (FR)
WOMEN
1st Seiko Fukuoka (FR)
2nd Nao Nariyama (JP)
3rd Yael Margelisch (CH)
NATIONS
1st France
2nd UK
3rd Czech republic
The FAI’s Paragliding World Championships page is here; all the scores are here.
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