World Pilot Rankings Update
Lausanne, 31 July 2000
The latest WPRS sees changes to hang gliding, class 2, paragliding and speed gliding. There are no changes to Paragliding Accuracy.
Hang gliding sees the addition of the European Championships, the Female World Championships, the Pre World Air Games and the Icelandic Open. the 1999 Australian HG Open has been deleted.
In the hang gliding rankings the points are very close at the top, with Oleg Bondarchuk (UKR) having regained first place with 285 points, ahead of Richard Walbec (FRA, 283 points) and European Champion Manfred Ruhmer (AUT, 280 points) in 3rd. Andre Wolf (BRA) has dropped to 4th ahead of Gordon Rigg (GBR, 5th) and Betinho Schmitz (BRA) 6th. Good results at the Europeans and PreWAG events have seen Mario Alonzi (FRA) climbs to 7th (from 22nd) and Robert Resinger (AUT, 9th) climb to 9th from 52nd. Nene Rotor (BRA) is in 8th and Gerolf Heinrichs (AUT) completes the top 10 (from 14th).
Following the Female World Championships and European championships Francoise Mocellin (FRA) still leads the female rankings in 29th place overall (163points), with Kathleen Rigg (GBR) 2nd (51st overall) and Kari Castle (USA) 3rd. There are 529 pilots ranked from 33 countries
In speed gliding the Red Bull Speed Run there has been a correction to the Red Bull Speed Run results. Originally the results of the whole event (including the match racing) were used to calculate the WPRS points. This was an error. The WPRS points have now been calculated on the Speed gliding results only. Although this changes the points slightly, 1st to 6th positions remain unchanged. Callum Fisher (NZL) is 7th followed by Max Weiner (GER, 8th) and Fraser Clint (NZL) and Rubens Lopes (BRA) are equal 9th.
The Class 2 European Championships and Pre WAG, have not changed the 1st and 2nd positions (David Sharp (USA) and Brian Porter (USA) respectively. However Marcus Hoffmann Guben's 2nd in the European's and 4th in the Pre WAG event brings him up to 3rd (from 9th). Hansjoerg Truttmann (SUI) drops to 4th ahead of Christof Kratzner (GER, 5th) and Davis Straub (USA, 6th). Diego Bussinger (SUI) climbs to 7th (from 21st), Johan Posch (AUT) drops to 8th (from 5th) and Bernd Weber (GER) moves up a place to 9th, with Johnny Carr (GBR) completing the top ten. Niki Hamilton (GBR) is the only female ranked (26th overall). There are 41 pilots from 9 countries.
Results not received yet, and therefore not included:
US HG Nationals (class 1 & 2)
Dutch HG Open
The paragliding rankings see the addition of the PWC Portugal, the British Open and the Greek (Aeolia) Open. Andrew Smith's (RSA) wins at the Portuguese PWC and the British Open take him from 12th to 1st place in the paragliding rankings ending Steve Cox's (SUI) five month reign at the top,
and making him the first non-European pilot to head the paragliding rankings. Steve Cox (SUI) is in 2nd place ahead of Martin Brunn (AUT, 3rd), Christian Tammeger (AUT, 4th) and Kari Eisenhut (SUI, 5th). Tsuyoshi Tsuji (JAP) is a newcomer to the top 10 climbing to 6th (from 13th). Matthew
Taggart (GBR) returns to the top 10 in 7th (from 28th). Jean-marc Caron (FRA) moves into 8th (from 18th) and Frank Brown (BRA) is 9th (from 35th) with Michael Orolin (SVK) dropping to 10th (from 5th). Petra Krausova (CZE) has just maintained her lead in the female rankings (55th place overall), with Andrea Joubert (RSA) 2nd (57th overall) now only two points behind and Gill Hartley (GBR) in 3rd place (83rd overall). There are currently 630 pilots ranked from 34 countries.
Results not received yet, and therefore not included:
Finnish PG Open
Veltins Cup, Austria
Country rankings
Full details of the country rankings (PG and HG) can be found on the World Pilot Ranking System website. Pilots should check that their personal record shows the correct nationality, particularly as there are 69 hang glider pilots and 17 paraglider pilots of unknown nationality. All amendments should be e-mailed to Paula Bowyer (paula@fai.org).
Full details of the rankings can be found on the FAI/CIVL website at http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/rankings/.
Forthcoming hang gliding competitions (class 1 unless otherwise indicated) that qualify for WPRS points are:
Category 2: German Open (class 1 & 2); British HG Open, France (class 1 & 2); Norwegian HG Open; Brasilian Masters; Podbrezova Cup, Slovakia;French HG Open (class 1 & 2); Canungra Classic, Australia.
NB: The Pan American Cup(class 1 & 2) has been cancelled.
Forthcoming paragliding competitions that qualify for WPRS points are:
Category 2: PWC's - Mieussy and Chamonix; Canadian Nationals;Zimbabwe PG Open; Norwegian Cup; Ball/Ultra/FreeX Open, USA; Red Bull US Nationals; Polish Open, Italy; Takayama horm cup, Japan; Japanese Nationals; Canungra cup, Australia;
Accuracy (precision events):
Category 1: World Accuracy Championships, UK
Category 2: Nantanya, Israel
Details of these competitions can be found on the CIVL web page:
http://events.fai.org/hgpg/civl-calendar.asp
Any queries/questions regarding the World Pilot Ranking Scheme should be sent to Paula Bowyer, e-mail paula@fai.org.
Information and an application form for CIVL category 2 sanctioning are available on the CIVL website http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/ or from Paula Bowyer.
Pilots qualified for category 1 events at 31 July 2000
The list of qualified pilots (as at 31st July 2000) is now available on the CIVL website. All pilots listed have qualified with an overall result in the top 2/3rd overall of a Category 1 or Category 2 event in the previous 3 years.
