Task 3 of the European Paragliding Championships 2010. Photo: Martin Scheel. www.azoom.ch
Italian Luca Donini is the 2010 European Paragliding Champion and Italy the top nation following only three valid tasks from a possible twelve competition days in a rain soaked Abtenau, Austria, from 25 May to 5 June. This makes the Italian hotelier the most successful pilot ever in FAI Cat 1 championships: Luca won the Europeans four years ago in Morzine, France and the world championships in Granada, Spain in 2001.
Alex Schalber (AT) and Rafal Luckos (PO) were second and third overall, also on Mantra R10s.
Two world champions took first and second in the female championship: Petra Silvova flew her Niviuk Icepeak 3 to 61st place overall ahead of Frenchwoman Elisa Houdry on an Icepeak 4.
The Ozone wing dominated the championship. In fact, only the R10, Niviuk’s Icepeak 4 and the Gin Boomerang 7 were seen at all in the top 14 places.
Save for a glitch on the second task, Live tracking allowed fans to watch the races live on Google Earth. If you missed out, you can replay them now through Pgcomps website.
Whilst the competition ended with a fantastic-weather day and a 134 km task, overall the conditions were nothing short of abysmal with only three of a possible fourteen tasks proving scorable! Reminiscent of the 1999 World Paragliding Championships in Bramberg-Neukirchen when rain stopped play for all but two of the fourteen tasks, the 2010 Europeans have done nothing for Austria’s reputation as a great place to run free flying competitions in Spring.
Extra salt in Bavarian wounds must surely be the images that circulated Facebook of pilots at the Women’s Hang Gliding and Rigid World Championships in Tegelberg this year digging the snow off take off after yet another storm. That event saw no tasks flown! Ok, so Tegelberg is in Germany, but only 10 km from the Austrian border, but the message remains the same: organising big events in Spring in the northern Alps is risky.
Luckily the region and organisation offered plenty of alternatives during the sustained period of unflyable weather that plagued the event. Aside exploring the beautiful Austrian countryside, there was a T shirt competition with Salomon putting up some great prizes including skis, technical footwear and jackets.
Ukranian Andrii Vitchenko was the lucky winner of a year’s subscription to Cross Country magazine!
Certification controversy reared its ugly head again. Evidence came to light many competition wings taking part that may not have passed dynamic load tests as defined by the FAI sporting code for paragliders. To enforce this rule part-way through the event was deemed to be unfair and impractical, not least because it would have affected a large majority of the field, but it is likely that it will be enforced in future FAI sanctioned competitions.
Read the full report in issue 130 of Cross Country magazine, out soon. if you don’t have a subscription yet, you can subscribe here.
European Paragliding Championships 2010 website
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