The fourth Paragliding World Cup round of 2023 will take place in Aksaray, Turkey from 29 July to 5 August. Here, conditions are strong and it is a mixture of flatland and mountain flying.
The PWC’s Ruth Jessop writes:
Aksaray is near Cappadocia, in the hot, dry plains of Turkey. With strong thermals, Aksaray is a very exciting competition venue. Racing here in is very technical, switching gears often being the key to success.
This is a truly stunning venue with take-off on the flanks of the spectacular Hasan Dagi, a 3270m high, dormant volcano. Apart from the rugged, conical mountain the take-off is on, the flying is mainly over hot, dry, arid flat lands, with small hills and some impressive gorges.
The first World Cup in Aksaray was in September 2018. Yassen Savov came a very close second, just behind Russell Achterberg on that occasion. When the World Cup returned to Aksaray in September 2021, it was very much Martin Jovanoski’s competition. He was in the top three in each of the five tasks! Both Yassen and Martin will be battling it out once again next week.
There will also be a big contingent of Iranian pilots taking part, notably Hadi Heidari and Soheil Barikani, not to mention Torsten Siegel, competing in his 97th World Cup, who could once again bring the medals home for Mr Gin!
Ferdinand Vogel, the new Mr X-Alps, is another one who could pull amazing results out of the strong thermals and is definitely worth keeping an eye on. International pilot, Stan Radzikowski, is also increasingly on the up in the thermals these days, flying well in both the recent World Championships and leading out at the World Cup in Romania a few weeks ago.
As for the Turks flying on their home turf, there are a lot of them too who could potentially fly away with the top spot. We’re also putting lira on British legend Guy Anderson doing well. He’s come second in the World Championships in the past. More to the point, he’s in team Cross Country Magazine, along with Dylan Mansley (the youngest pilot in the competition), Craig Morgan and Dougie Swanson-Low.
As for the ladies’ podium, Silvia Buzzi Ferraris is the only lady to have won a World Cup in the past, so this may be time for a comeback or a new leading lady to fly away with the ultimate prize.
It’s going to be an exciting competition with lots of new names at the top we predict.
Follow the action on the Flymaster tracking and the World Cup web app and website. The leaderboard now has live scoring. The commentary will be in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish and Korean. The split-screen facility permits any combination of leaderboard, tracking and commentary.
We have also recently introduced the maillot jaune (overall race leader), maillot vert (leadout point leader) and maillot rose (leading lady) on the tracking and in the air.
