Race Report: SRS Gin Edition Colombia 2026

Colombian pilot Cesar Arevalo won the opening Sports Class Racing Series event of the year in Roldanillo, Colombia after a dramatic victory on the final task. The local pilot had been languishing in the rankings and only achieved a top ten result on the third task. But on the final day it all came together with a stunning victory. He was flying a BGD Cure 3 (EN C).

Second place went to Carlos Lopes (PRT, Gin GTO3) and third to Simon Steiner, (CHE, Gin GTO3). The women’s competition was won by Magdalena Janaway (GBR, Gin GTO3) who finished 20th overall. Summer Barham (USA, Ozone Photon) finished in second place with the Lithuanian Rasa Grigoraitiene (Ozone Photon) in third.

The season opener began with a 65.8km task. Two days of bad weather then followed but days four and five were both taskable, with 63.7km and 83km routes set. The fourth task on the final day began slowly on the flats. “After La Victoria, Victor Aguilera, Luis Pol and Pepe Malecki broke away,” organisers reported on the live feed. “Victor and Luis maintained their lead of several kilometres through the first two turnpoints, where the vast majority of the other pilots got stuck and landed.

“Victor continued alone south towards Zarzal, to be eventually followed, about 25 minutes later by Carlos Lopes, Raphael Oerer and Cesar Urrego who patiently worked their way to Zarzal in the difficult conditions to eventually overfly Victor. Cesar made it furthest to seal the task win, despite Victor taking all the leading points, and this was enough for him to win the whole competition.”

Magdalena Janaway was never far from the podium. The first three tasks saw her finish second, first and fourth. Her second place on the final task, won by Elisa Deutschmann, was enough to secure the female victory.

The final day proved a welcome comeback for Elisa, who earlier in the competition was penalised for “gaining an advantage as the result of external influence” by following her partner Killian Hallweger, who was not in the competition.

Elisa admitted forwarding the task to him but denied there was ever a plan to follow him. “I had no prior knowledge that my partner intended to fly the task. There was no coordination, agreement, or communication between us, either before or during the competition,” she told us. “All decisions I made throughout the task were entirely my own.”

But she accepted the penalty, losing that day’s lead-out points, finishing the task in third place. Organisers also issued a formal warning to Killian as a reminder to any pilot that it is forbidden and considered “unsporting behaviour” to fly a comp task without an entry.

SRS is a series for competitive pilots flying EN-C and EN-B class gliders. The next event on the calendar is the SRS Skywalk edition in Bassano in May. At the award ceremony the event’s founder and organiser Brett Janaway was given the Cross Country Pilot of the Year award for his contribution to the sport.

OVERALL
1 Cesar Arevalo, COL, BGD Cure 3, Ozone Submarine, 2837.3
2 Carlos Lopes, PRT, Gin GTO3 / Gin Genie Race 5, 2636.5
3 Simon Steiner, CHE, Gin GTO3 / Gin Genie Race 5, 2537.6

WOMEN
1 Magdalena Janaway, GBR, Gin GTO3 / Gin Genie Race 5, 2358.1
2 Summer Barham, USA, Ozone Photon / Ozone Forza2, 2,311.7
3 Rasa Grigoraitiene, LTU, Ozone Photon / Woody Valley X-Rated 7, 2169.9

TEAM

1 Team GIN 2
2 Team BGD
3 Team GIN

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