Round one of the Microlight Pylon competition

The microlight 'trike' competition got underway on the second day of the Games. The first round would see the relegation of the three slowest crews, though the Hungarian team (Matuska/Török) were unable to make the start line because of engine problems. During the contest the teams from Russia (Bushev/Astafiev) and Poland (Jurkiewicz/Jurkiewicz) posted the slowest times and therefore do not qualify for the next round. What became clear during the round was that it was not necessarily the most powerful engine which will dominate the proceedings, but instead the fastest wing and, of course, the skill of the pilots to negotiate the tight turns around the pylons as smoothly as possible.

The first results showed that the two crews from the United Kingdom were fastest: Chris Saysell flew the quickest of all of the competitors, posting a time of 1.43:50 minutes, though his three team members were close behind. The rest of the competitors finished as follows: Italy, the USA, Hungary, Poland and Norway. Though the competition organisation at first showed signs of being overwhelmed by their task, the first race began on time and concluded slightly ahead of schedule.