The second day of the Paragliding World Cup Superfinal in Disentis, Switzerland, saw better conditions and a longer, 84km task. Seiko Fukuoka-Naville topped the women’s rankings for the second day running while Luc Armant took the overall task win.
Ruth Jessop reports:
With a much more promising weather forecast today an 84 km task up and down the Disentis valley was set.
The wait for the start gate to open gave fantastic views of sharp mountains and snowy, glacial terrain.
The race northeast to Flims was fast and furious. Luc Armant and Julien Wirtz took an early lead which they kept almost to End of Speed. The following gaggle overtook them 1km from the End of Speed Section (ESS) when they hit tricky conditions and their route shaded over forcing them to stop for a climb.
Jan Jares, on the other side of the valley, used a cloud to climb out and fly straight to ESS, crossing the virtual line with a convincing lead of 1 minute and 28 seconds.
The constantly changing wind direction in the goal field made it look as if nobody would make it, so helmets off to the 83 pilots who made the tricky final part of the race as the waiting crowd and paparazzi held their breath.
The first 83 pilots made goal, and thus all flew the same distance, and gained the same distance points. Today’s winner is therefore the one with a combination of the best speed/time points and lead out points.
Top 3 Overall
1 – Luc Armant
2 – Jan Jares
3 – Pierre Rémy
Top 3 Women
1 – Seiko Fukuoka-Naville
2 – Méryl Delferrière
3 – Nanda Walliser
Top 3 teams
1 – Ozone
2 – Niviuk
3 – Gin Gliders
Top 3 speed points
02:07:11 Jan Jares (average speed 38.4 km/h)
02:08:39 Pierre Rémy
02:08:59 Aaron Durogati
Top 3 leading points
161.4 Luc Armant
156.8 Julien Wirtz
148.0 Pierre Rémy
All the results are available here
Don’t forget, you can follow the commentary, the leaderboard and tracking on the live app / webpage
