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Sailplane Grand Prix Newsletter 8 (23.02.2009)

2008 – 2009 GP Round

Dear Friends

Six qualifying GP events have been completed on the 2008-2009 calendar.

Location Pilots Countries Tasks
Torino, Italy 7 2 4
St Auban, France 15 4 6
Lasham, UK 16 1 1
Nitra, Slovakia 18 7 7
Narromine, Australia 19 5 7
Santiago, Chile 19 6 6

Two more qualifying events are planned:

  • Zar, Poland (26 April to 2 May) and
  • Feldkirchen, Austria (16 to 23 May)

Details are available at http://www.fai.org/gliding/QSGP0809

The qualifiers from these two remaining QGP events will be announced as soon as they are completed.

Qualification for the GP Final 2008-2009

At the beginning of the current round, the criteria for selecting pilots for the GP Final were:

  • The current GP Champion has a right-of-entry to the GP Final.
  • If there are 10 or more pilots flying in a QGP then:
    • the 1st and 2nd placed pilots automatically qualify, and
    • the 3rd placed pilot is a reserve and will replace those who placed 1st and 2nd if one of them withdraws.
  • If there are less than 10 pilots in the QGP, then:
    • the 1st placed pilot automatically qualifies and
    • the 2nd placed pilot is a reserve and will replace the 1st placed pilot if he/she withdraws.
  • The Organisers of the GP-Final will be allowed a ‘wild-card’ entry if they do not have a pilot qualified through the QGP rounds.

Bureau Decisions for 2008-2009 GP Final Qualification

Of course nothing ever goes exactly as planned:

  • The QGP at Lasham was affected by poor weather, hence the single day of flying. The GP Rules require 3 days for flying for a winner to be declared. The Bureau has considered the Lasham situation and agreed to accept the 1st placed pilot from the one-day of competition as a qualifier for the GP Final.
  • With the current FAI World Sailplane GP Champion placing 2nd at Nitra, the 3rd placed pilot – who would have been the reserve from Nitra - has already been accepted as a qualifier.
  • With only 7 pilots flying at Torino there is only one qualifier.

The pilots qualified, at this time, for the GP Final are:

Result, Location Country
Sebastian Kawa

FAI World Sailplane GP Champion

POL
Stefano Ghiorzo

1st Place, Torino

ITA
Olivier Darroze

1st Place, St Auban

FRA
Christophe Ruch

2nd Place, St Auban

FRA
Chris Curtis

1st Place, Lasham

GBR
Petr Krejcirik

1st Place, Nitra

CZE
Olli Teronen

3rd Place, Nitra

FIN
Graham Parker

1st Place, Narromine

AUS
Riccardo Brigliadori

2nd Place, Narromine

ITA
Uli Schwenk

1st Place, Santiago

GER
Tilo Holighaus

2nd Place, Santiago

GER

The reserve pilots, at this time, for the GP Final are:

2008-2009 GP Final

The current economic situation is impacting negatively on sports along with all other activities. This includes our ability to organise a host for the GP Final for the 2008-2009 round.

It had been our aim to have the host announced some time ago – but this has not been achieved. The Bureau are currently working to ensure that we are able to announce the 2009 final dates and venue at the IGC plenary meeting to be held in Lausanne on the 5th and 6th of March.

This is a frustrating situation for all, especially for the pilots, as they still do not know when and where they will be competing. I apologise for this uncertainty and look forward to being able to announce a venue and the dates at the IGC plenary meeting.

Best regards,

Bob Henderson
President, IGC
February 23rd, 2009

Check out dates and results of the events, list of qualified pilots, rules etc at http://www.fai.org/gliding/sgp .

‹ Sailplane Grand Prix Newsletter 7 (03.11.2007)upResults of Gliding Competitions ›
»
Result, Location Country
Giancario Ginza

2nd Place, Torino

ITA
Mario Kiessling

3rd Place, St Auban

GER
John Buchanan

3rd Place, Narromine

AUS
Thomas Gostner

3rd Place, Santiago

ITA