Better late than not at all, the World Cup season will take off from Disentis on Sunday the 16th of August.
In Disentis the pilots will be flying in an area which is strongly influenced by valley winds and with very complex aerology. Often the style of flying can be quite close to the terrain with not a lot of thermalling going on. Those who do well will be the pilots who really understand how the air is moving on and around the mountains.
The event will bring together fourteen Super Final, World Cup, World and Europe champions, all trying to prove that they have nothing to prove.
Hot on their fairings, almost a third of the pilots who will be competing have A’s! Tougher still, seven out of the nine ladies competing have already won the ladies title. But above all, Disentis 2020 is going to be a fantastic get together of old friends, long standing rivals, new World Cup pilots and flying families. Fathers and sons will be competing against each other. Brothers trying to beat brothers, sisters trying to beat brothers and some of the paragliding world’s most famous couples will be in full on racing mode, desperate to get to goal first, knowing that last one home in any couple always has to do the washing up!
Once again Ozone will be fielding one of the strongest teams in the competition: Honorin HAMARD, Luc ARMANT, Julien WIRTZ and Méryl DELFERRIERE.
The only thing that none of them will be able to beat is, weather permitting, the stunning alpine scenery.
Whilst making the most of the only opportunity open to them so far this year, in Disentis, the World Cup is still really looking forward to being reunited with the rest of our flying family in some of their favourite worldwide locations as soon as possible.
Follow Disentis 2020 on the live commentary, tracking and World Cup TV on our new website: https://pwca.org/
Text courtesy of PWCA / Ruth Jessop Photo by Hernan Pitocco
Ozone team pilot, Xevi Bonet, has started the season with two impressive wins. After taking first at the Spanish Championship in Piedrahita, Xevi has just won The Spanish XC Championship in Zarzacapilla and has been crowned Spanish National Paragliding Champion.
Xevi reports:
“The Spanish XC Championship in Zarzacapilla (Badajoz) just finished after 4 amazing tasks with no waypoints or Startpoints to tag. The main idea was to fly as far as possible until sunset or until we ran into the easterly wind (Viento de Levante).
I won the Open and the Spanish Championship with 213, 272, 350 and 279 km flights respectively. The young pilot Darío Dandeu finished second after winning the fist and the last day of the competition in which he flew solo all the way to Cuenca for a 305 km flight.
In third place was Felix Rodriguez. We were all flying Enzo 3s.
The race was organized by Club Aerofly that took care of all the pilots and limited the number of pilots to 60 to ensure a better and faster retrieve.”
Ozone Team Pilot, Xevi “El Pajaro” Bonet has won The Spanish Championship at Piedrahita.
In the women’s category, Ozone team pilot, Meryl Delferriere (France), took the win and finished 8th overall.
Xevi, Meryl, Felix Rodriguez, Xavi Pujol, and Ronny Geijsen won the team Category (Alam Air / Ozone).
All were flying Enzo 3.
Xevi reports:
“We were 150 pilots in total and flew 5 valid tasks of 123, 121, 69, 153 and 124 km respectively. They were novel tasks with out and return, or triangles never tried before.
This was possible thanks to the great conditions we had during the whole event with strong climbs (+9 m/s) and a high ceiling (up to 4300m).
The last day, the race was moved to a different launch, Pedro Bernardo, located in the south face of La Sierra de Gredos to close the event with a down wind task.
This was a high level competition in which participated the Portuguese Team and the young French pilot from Pôle Espoir.
The organization was incredible, they are already working on alternative Take-offs facing South and putting together a Pre-PWC for next year, a PWC for 2022, and maybe a World Championship for 2023.”
Xevi not only won this challenging race but also found the time to take some amazing images to share with us, thank you, Xevi!
Our friend Gareth Carter had just won the Australian PG Championship, with Kari Ellis in second. Both flying Enzo 3s.
This is the 8th Australian title that Gare adds to his belt. In his words:
“Hey, I’m Gareth, and I’m a weekend warrior that flies paragliders in competitions around the world!
After occasionally seeing early paragliders in the 90’s doing sleddies while training for ski racing, and later instructing, I started flying in 2001, due to a mate of mine dragging me along to a course for company, loved it straight away and jumped right into driving around the east coast of Australia chasing XC. Ironically, my mate lasted about 6 months then gave up flying.
I did my first comp in 2010 as my group of friends had started doing comps and I figured i’d give it a try, I had no idea what I was doing, and promptly bombed after 10km in the first task. It basically took that whole competition to work out how to fly tasks instead of just going with the easy XC option.
The next year in 2011 I did the full comp season in Australia (usually 3 FAI Cat 2), winning serial class on the Mantra M3 and came 11th overall (competing against the R10’s). Since then I won 6 straight Australian titles (12,13,14,15,16,17), including winning 6 FAI Cat 2 in a row, lost one (3rd in 2018) and then won the last two years (19,20).
I did my first PWC in 2014 in France – a long way from the small hills and flats of Australia, it was a great learning experience, and over the years since i’ve tried to do the premier PWC each year in terrain that is challenging for me i.e. anything not flat. As a weekend warrior it’s hard to compete with all the pro pilots doing the full circuit, but the challenge is exciting and travelling to random places around the globe and flying is amazing. I guess since 2016 i’ve averaged somewhere around the top 15 in PWC and World Championships (10th PWC Portugal 2016, 12th Feltre Worlds 2017, 12th PWC Australia 2018, 14th PWC Italy 2018, 41st Macedonia Worlds 2019). I’m still chasing a PWC task win, having been second twice, to Honorin and Stephan Morganthaler. Even being first across the line in one task, then being beaten on leadout by 2points – i’m coming for you Stephan.
The Australian comp scene has been improving enormously over the last 5 years, with the Australian team placing 5th at the Italy Worlds in 2017 and, 6 Australians in the WPRS top 100 last year. This has made the Australian Championships ever harder to win, and i’m enormously proud to have beaten a talented bunch of pilots this year, the challenge ramps up with every year that passes. The Australian Championship ran over two FAI Cat 2, in Bright and Corryong in Victoria with 9 tasks in total. The Task wins divided between Australian team members (Gareth Carter (3), Peter Slade (3) and Kari Ellis) and up and coming Australian and Finnish pilots (Richard Binstead, Kalle Ojamo). Comp wins to Peter Slade (Bright) and myself (Corryong)”
For full results Click here. Congrats and cheers from all the OZONE team
Note: If you’re interested, register & pay ASAP at the Air Tribune link below, as there are limited slots left!
The Ozone Chelan Open (12-17 July) is a friendly & low-stress XC event designed for capable pilots who do not yet have extensive competition experience. This competition is designed in the spirit and model of the now-legendary Ozone Chabre Open, which has been running since 2006!
The Ozone Chelan Open 2020 will be an EN-C and lower event. The entry fee includes extensive mentoring, coaching, guidance, and debriefs from a handful of the best pilots in the USA.
