“You are probably aware that France has just started its third period of lockdown, while the vaccine roll-out throughout Europe is disappointingly slow. The FFVL has currently put in place a temporary ban on competitions and it is still unclear how travel restrictions will be eased globally.
In short, there are so many uncertainties surrounding the evolution of the Covid pandemic that the Chabre Vol Libre team has reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the 15th edition of the Ozone Chabre Open until 2022. It is our intention to run the event in its traditional format from 25th June to 1 July 2022”
The first stop of the Paragliding Japanese League 2021 just came to an end.
Our friend Yoshiki Oka reports:
“Last weekend there was 1st leg of Japan League Competition at Ashio,Japan. And the longest task in Japanese PG competition history of 179km was called.
14 pilots out of 60 reached goal!
All of them made their personal longest flight. Moreover female runner-up, Midori NAKANOME(flying ZENO) extended the flight after reaching the goal and landed 25.2km further totaling 204.1km,which is the longest distance ever flown by paraglider in Japan.”
Our friends Gareth Carter and Kari Ellis had just won the Australian PG Championship. Both flying Enzo 3s.
This is the 9th Australian title that Gare adds to his belt.
Kari reports:
“The 2021 Corryong Paragliding Open in Australia was held over 7-13 February. The competition week fortuitously coincided with a COVID safe window in the Australian community and domestic travel restrictions eased, allowing pilots from all over the country to attend.
Corryong is a world class racing venue on the doorstep of Australia’s Victorian alps, featuring mixed terrain with big mountains and wide valleys.
The competition week delivered stellar conditions, with light winds and strong climbs allowing for fast racing. The field of 75 competitors enjoyed 5 tasks, including shorter sprint style tasks of up to 55km, as well as longer tasks up to 85km.
The competition was won by Gareth Carter on his Enzo 3, giving Gareth his 9th Australian National Paragliding Championship. It was a dominant competition for Gareth who won 3 out of 5 tasks in the competition, including 1 task win tied on equal points with Kari Ellis!
The women’s title and National Championship went to Kari, also on an Enzo 3, who won 2 tasks in the competition (including the shared win with Gareth).
The Serial class win went to Adam Stott on his Zeno, with Geoff Wong in second also on a Zeno.
In the week prior to the Corryong Open, Gareth also won the Bright Open, winning 2 out of 3 tasks. Due to COVID conditions at the time, the Bright Open was downgraded to a FAI Cat 2 competition (with less points available for the Australian Championship), with 51 pilots attending and enjoying tasks between 58-75km long in classic Bright racing conditions.
All in all, a very successful racing season down under for Australian Ozone pilots!!!”
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!
