Bruce Goldsmith won BGD Weightless 2020 flying the new EN-C Cure 2. The competition was scored using a new Multiple Radius Turnpoint system.
The event took place in Roldanillo, Colombia, from 4-10 January, and good conditions allowed six tasks to be scored, ranging from 45.8km to 59.8km. As event organisers, neither Bruce nor second-placed Stan Radzikowski were eligible for prizes, and Serghei Nebesnii of Moldova took home the overall Super Class prize.
Prizes were awarded in five classes: Female, Leisure, Sports, Serial and Super (overall). The new MRT (Multiple Radius Turnpoint) system was used to score the competition.
BGD Weightless was conceived three years ago, and aside from being a fun and inclusive competition, part of its raison d’être is to develop a workable scoring system for paragliding competitions that takes all-up weight into account, compensating for the disadvantage lighter pilots have without unfairly penalising heavier pilots.
For Weightless 2020, ten weight categories were defined and each category assigned a different turnpoint cylinder radius – wider radius for lighter pilots – so effectively heavier pilots had further to fly around the course. It’s still in development and to be fine-tuned, but BGD say the feedback from the competition was good: lighter pilots said MRT scoring had helped them, while heavier pilots had not felt unfairly disadvantaged.
Bruce and the teams intention is that MRT could be widely adopted, and its principles could be applied to different attributes, not just weight classes. For instance, different radius turnpoints could be used by different paraglider certification classes.
As well as the category prizes, Felipe Uribe from Colombia was the very lucky winner of the top raffle prize – a brand new BGD wing; he chose a new Cure 2.
Results
Female Class
1. Daria Krasnova (RUS), UP Kangri, 2833 points
2. Magdalena Pawlak (POL), Niviuk Artik, 2555 points
3. Mariaalejandra Mejia (COL), BGD Cure, 2140 points
Leisure Class (EN B and below)
1. Kay Kuehne (GER), Ozone Swift 5, 3036 points
2. Daria Krasnova (RUS), UP Kangri, 2833 points
3. Edward Browne (GBR), Gin Carrera, 2814 points
Sports Class (EN C and below)
1. Bruce Goldsmith (GBR), BGD Cure 2, 4676 points
2. Stan Radzikowski (GBR), Gin Bonanza 2, 4290 points
3. Pavel Titov (RUS), 777 Queen 2, 3772 points
4. Schuyler Heath (USA), Flow Fusion, 3296 points
5. Andy Smart (GBR), BGD Cure 2, 3082 points
Serial Class (EN D and below)
1. Bruce Goldsmith (GBR), BGD Cure 2, 4676 points
2. Stan Radzikowski (GBR), Gin Bonanza 2, 4290 points
3. Surzmyshyn Taras (UKR), Ozone Mantra M7, 4014 points
4. Pavel Titov (RUS), 777 Queen 2, 3772 points
5. Frode Graff (NOR), Ozone Mantra M7, 3693 points
Super (Overall) Class
1. Bruce Goldsmith (GBR), BGD Cure 2, 4676 points
2. Stan Radzikowski (GBR), Gin Bonanza 2, 4290 points
3. Serghei Nebesnii (MDA), Ozone Zeno, 4054 points
4. Surzmyshyn Taras (UKR), Ozone Mantra M7, 4014 points
5. Didier Desaintetienne (FRA), Ozone Zeno, 3988 points
All results on airtribune.com.
