1st FAI World Canopy Piloting Freestyle Championships & 7th FAI World Canopy Piloting Championships

Wroclaw, Szymanow,

Poland
03 Jul
-
07 Jul 2018
05 Jul 2018

Record Makers in Wroclaw

5th July 2018

Yesterday afternoon it all happened so quickly, as one would expect for a Speed event, and we just had time to add our congratulations to Andrew Woolf of Australia, the new World Champion.  Now, we have to announce we have a NEW - Female Speed World Record Holder Cornelia Mihai, UAE with a round one run of 2.273.  It is a new record, but not a new record holder, as Cornelia was the holder of the existing record of 2.289.

 Cornelia Mihail

8.00 this morning wheels off for the first load of the day - Round 2, Accuracy.  Providing the winds remain as they are the plan is then to complete the Accuracy event with the 3rd round before moving to the last two rounds of Distance.  At the moment the conditions are perfect although it is already 26C and forecast to rise to 31C by mid-afternoon - so take pity on our judges.

Spectators on a Wednesday afternoon

All the local publicity works, TV, roadside posters, local radio and the World Games last year, brings in the crowd on a Wednesday afternoon.

9.30

The winds have gone over the limits so we have only one round of Accuracy completed this morning and now move to Distance.

Disstance - Flight mode

11.00  Second round of Distance completed - the two competitors without scores have withdrawn from the competition due to injuries - we wish them both a speedy recovery.  So we continue with the third.

There are some spectators here today, but for all on the Drop Zone, competitors, friends and family the two major sources of information throughout the day are The Big Screen and our commentator Regan Tetlow who does a brilliant job with a continuous chat line of interesting gossip, information and a creative flow of building the competitive tension.

The Big Screen

12.00  Round 3 of Distance is complete - once all the scores are checked and confirmed we will have our 2nd World Champion of the competition.  The wind has now dropped and so after the judges have had lunch and reset the course we will go back to Accuracy - hopefully to complete round 3 today.

13.00  The wind came up!  So everyone is stood down until 16.00 hrs.

The break gave the Jury a chance to confirm the following Conentinal Records for Speed and Distance - there are none for Accuracy:

PictureNameContinentRecordRound
Speed Records    
Arthur Carneiro Lima (BRA)South America2.2391
Cedric Veiga RiosCedric Veiga Rios (FRA)European

2.196 Round 2

2.173 Round 3

 2

 3

Cornelia MihailCornelia Mihai (UAE)Asia - Female2,273 1
Christopher TeagueChristopher Teague (RSA)African2.404 2

Distance Records

    
Nicolas BatschNicholas BatschNorth American

144.96

160.21

1

3

All records are subject to confirmation by the FAI

Congratulations to our new record holders

And now - Congratulations to our second WORLD CHAMPION of these 7th FAI World Canopy Piloting Championships for Distance:  Cedric Veiga Rios from France with a total score of 297.437.  Second place goes to Max Manow, Germany, total 284.541 and Nicholas Batsch, USA on 281.763.

Cedric Veiga Rios

16.00   We have a 15 minute call for the start of Round 3 Accuracy, but ten minutes later everyone is on Standby.  The Standby was extended to standdown until 16.30 which is the latest point at which we could complete the round today.  At just after the announcement was made  the wind increased, clouds came in, thermals arrived and the wind changed direction to directly down the course.  Hopes are high for an improvement by 16.30.  It did and by 16.45 they are in the air, the wind changed again to across the course and conditions look settled.

18.50 The last load of the day and the competition takes off.  Soon we will know who our third and fourth World Champions are.  The crowds are here again to cheer on the competitors.

Last lift

19.20 - we have the confirmed results and a new Accuracy World Champion: 

Curtis Bartholomew, USA with 287.560 points followed by Ivan Semenyaka, UKR 276.714 points and Roman Dubsky, SVK with 753.102

Curtis Bartholomew
FINALLY OUR OVERALL CANOPY PILOTING WORLD CHAMPION 2018
Nicolas Batsch

Nicolas Batsch, USA - with 833.262 points :

Cedric Veiga Rios, FRA - with 828.539 points and

Curtis Bartholomew, USA - with 817.602 points

The Team Results will be posted tomorrow

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR MEDAL WINNERS and THANK YOU to all the COMPETITORS

Not forgetting the officials, Judges, Jury, Meet Director, Course Controller and Volunteers, Organiser and all his team, who worked hard to make this competition a success.

Competition website