One hundred and eleven pilots made goal on Sunday 7 November, validating the Paragliding World Championships 2021 with a third task. Cloudy conditions meant the 69km triangle was relatively slow-going. The USA’s Chris Cote won the day, and Seiko Fukuoka was first woman.
France were top-ranked nation again ahead of the United Kingdom, which is also how it stands overall so far.
Ruth Jessop reports on the day’s action:
Today was another cloudy day. Inspired by yesterday’s mission impossible task, another 69km race was set, this time going south.
There were good strong climbs just after the start. The competition split into two groups, a group who went to the mountains and a group who went into the flats. The mountain group came out higher (1,600m compared to those in the flats 1,500m) and slightly ahead.
At the southerly turnpoint a gaggle went further into the turnpoint chasing a patch of sunshine. They got a good climb but it took them a while to get back.
It was a day where the main tactical decision was, do you follow the sun on the ground and the triggers on the terrain, or the energy in the sky? Even with a totally covered sky it was still quite buoyant high up. Out in the flats it was really important to look for dry fields with sun on them and spot where birds were climbing.
From the third turnpoint onwards the sky closed in and the leaders were overtaken by those behind and higher up. Those who came late to goal had a very difficult time, having missed the cycle.
It was a long slow task where 111 pilots got there in the end.
TASK RESULTS
OVERALL
1st Chris Cote (US)
2nd Rafael Saladini (BR)
3rd Julien Wirtz (FR)
WOMEN
1st Seiko Fukuoka (FR)
2nd Petra Slivova (CZ)
3rd Junghun Park (KO)
NATIONS
1st France
2nd United Kingdom
3rd Brazil
Top speed points: 02:32:29: Chris Cote (25.7km/h average); 02:32:44: Luc Armant; 02:32:50: Julien Wirtz
Top lead-out points: 160.6: Marko Novak; 159.4: Russell Ogden; 158.2: Rafael Saladini
All the results are here.
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