After seven tasks in Gemona, Italy, Frenchman Jonathan Marin has won the event ahead of Ulrich Prinz and Simon Mettetal. Women’s winner was Seiko Fukuoka-Naville.
The final task saw great conditions, Ruth Jessop reports:
Mr Météo saved the best for last. Blue skies, puffy clouds and and epic 101km task over the mountains and out onto the flats.
From launch it was so clear that you could see Croatia. Racing along the most northerly ridge gave stunning views of the Dolomites in the distance.
In the words of task committee maestro Pepe Malecki: We set a perfect task to let everyone enjoy the good weather, a decisive task which saw 107 pilots in goal.
There were lots of options, especially at the start, with a choice of several ridges to take and a 2,200m base. Some very good thermals in the mountains were up to 4-5m/s.
Meantime out in the flats it didn’t work as well as the previous days.
The thermals were weaker at 1-2 m/s and most got no higher than 1,500m.
The race round the flats at the end shed quite a few famous faces. The task chucked all the scores up in the air except for the first two.
In the words of today’s task winner Jose Rebelo: An awesome day, an awesome task, awesome pilots, an awesome week. Jose’s average speed, as the fastest pilot round the course was 32.2 km/h.
Task 7 Top 3 Overall
1, Pierre Rémy
2nd=, Jose Rebelo
2nd=, Loïs Goutagny
Task 7 Top 3 Women
1st, Seiko Fukuoka-Naville
2nd, Constance Mettetal
3rd, Yuki Sato Colombé
Gemona 2021 Overall Podium
1st, Jonathan Marin
2nd, Ulrich Prinz
3rd, Simon Mettetal
PWC 2021 Gemona Women’s podium. Photo: PWCA
Gemona 2021 Overall Women’s Podium
1st, Seiko Fukuoka-Naville
2nd, Nanda Walliser
3rd, Constance Mettetal
PWC 2021 Gemona teams’ podium. Photo: PWCA
Gemona 2021 Overall Teams’ Podium
1st, Niviuk
2nd, Chinese Taipei Gliding Sports Association
3rd, Air’G Products
