Lausanne, 14th April 1999

CIVL World Pilot Ranking Scheme - latest Update

The latest World Pilot Ranking Scheme (WPRS) for hang gliding, paragliding and Class 2 has just been published.

Following feedback and a review of WPRS a programming error has been corrected. Now it is only a pilot's top 4 ranking scores that count towards the overall ranking (rather than all competitions a pilot had flown in the 18 month period). There are also several competitions which have dropped out of the current 18 month period. This all means that there are some big changes amongst the top places in both hang gliding and paragliding and the points are much closer.

In hang gliding new competitions included are the Australian HG Open, the Venezuelan International and the Brasilian WHGS and there are currently 378 pilots ranked. Manfred Ruhmer now leads with 296 points only 11 points separating the top 4 (Oleg Bondarchuk 287, Gerolf Heinrichs 286 and Guido Gehrmann 285). Newcomers to the top 10 are Josef Zweckmayer (6), Rupert Plattner (7) and Kristoff Kratzner (10). Those who have dropped out of the top 10 are Jean-Francois Gerard, Mario Alonzi and Bernardi Ignazio. For the women Niki Hamilton is now top ranked female in 44 position, with Francoise Mocellin 59th and Marie Jo Rufat 76th.

The paragliding ranking only sees the addition of the South African National Championships (not the Argentinian PWC as there were not enough valid rounds) and there are currently 401 pilots ranked. However with the changes detailed above there have been some big changes in the top 10. Jimmy Pacher is back in first place with 258 points ahead of Kari Eisenhut (250) and Christian Tamegger (246). Newcomers to the top 10 are Peter Von Kanel (4), Hans Bollinger (6), Xevi Bonet (7) and Steve Cox (9). Those slipping out of the top 10 are Denis Cortella, Stephan Stieglair, Walter Holzmuller and Mads Syndergaard. Claire Bernier still heads the female rankings in 38th followed by Sandie Cochepain (54) and Louise Crandal (63).

Class 2 sees no change as there were only 4 comps last year which was the first year of an active Class 2 ranking.

Full details are available on the CIVL website: www.fai.org/hang_gliding/rankings/

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