Italian Open

After four tasks, the Italian Open finished today. Manfred Ruhmer won ahead of Alex Ploner and Christian Ciech. Best German pilot was Gerd Dönhuber (13th) and Jörg Bajewski (19th). For pictures and more details, have a look at Matjaz´ Blog. Well done Matjaz for not giving up after two bad days and finishing 3rd in the last task!  Results here.
In Ager, Blay Olmos Jr won the Spanish Nationals after six rounds ahead of Pedro Garcia and Joel Miron.
In Laragne at the Belgian Open, the British pilots rule. After two tasks, Grant Crossingham is ahead of Richard Lovelace and Malcolm Brown. Apparently Mart Bosman went down on the reserve when the cross bar of his Airborne C4 broke on final glide. Mart is ok, luckily no broken bones! Results here.
Meanwhile Ive been preparing for the Junior challenge in Greifenburg next week, a great hang gliding comp where some friends and I will coach new pilots, show them XC tactics and competition routines.
Also, I had been to Bayern Plus for a fun interview. Sorry - it is just in German! It was live, so no time for mistakes or long pauses. The presenter, Mr Küffner, had been flying planes and helicopters, so he knew which questions to ask about hang gliding. When he asked about our world championship team titles, he asked if we were flying "formations" - a nice idea.
This weekend, I will keep my fingers crossed for Sebastian Vettel at the Grand Prix at Hockenheim in Germany. At the moment, he ranks 3rd behind Fernando Alonso and his team mate Mark Webber.

On Air today

 Last week our group of adidas Air athletes went to the outdoor exhibition in Friedrichshafen. I like the Festspiele at Bodensee right in the lake at Bregenz, they always have an amazing stage.
The evening before we joined a workshop with all the other adidas outdoor athletes. What a great bunch of excellent artists in their individual sports!

We were presented with next years collection´s outdoor shoes and sure wore them on the "Outdoor" fair. It was funny to walk around these knowledgeable people - they first saw my Red Bull logo, were probably wondering which sport I do when they looked into my face, then they scanned my clothes and always stopped for quite some time at the shoes ;) Im sure most of them knew that those are already next year´s gear!

Today I will be at Bayern Plus for a live interview on the radio between 14.00 and 15.00 this afternoon. It will be available online or at 801 Khz if you have a radio.

Chennai, India, Timezone GMT +5,5

Life is as vibrant as ever in South India. The spicy food is great, so many vegetarian choices that it takes me half an hour to decide what I want to eat ;) The hotel entrance is beautifully decorated with purple lotus flowers and leaves. And yes, it is stinking hot, just below 40 centigrade, but so far no storms or rain. Mind you, the water in the pool is so warm that you start sweating in the water when you swim a bit faster.

When I heard some birds today, I felt homesick for Australia. Which is strange, because the Indian Myna bird had only been imported to Australia and it is not an Australian native, but I always connect it´s unique sound to my first stay with the Moyes family in Sydney. I wish I could come to Canungra, but the comp is too early, and our European Championships in Turkey only end in the middle of September. Guess I will only make it to down under again in December.

I was amazed to see a paraglider on an instant noodle package called "Thrillin Curry" - sure I bought a whole bunch of them!

Nanjing, China, Timezone GMT +8

Lots of interesting things to see in Nanjing, like the old walls of the old Ming Palace. There is a huge lake not far from our hotel, and the Lotus flowers were massive and beautiful. And for some reason, other tourists always wanted to take photos with me, so I turned it around and also took photos with them ;)

New distance World Record: Jonny and Dustin!

Jonny Durand and Dustin Martin fly a new XC world record of 771 km in 11 hours in Texas, going from Zapata north to Lubbock, which a few of us know as a turnpoint or goal from the worlds at Big Spring! Finally the big day has arrived and has been picked as the big day. Well done guys!!! I wish I could have gone with you! Maybe next year, with less big comps in summer ;)
Read more on Jonny´s Blog

New Bräuniger home page

Have a look at the new Bräuniger home page - I am happy to be a Bräuniger Team Pilot together with Ewa Wisnierska and Toma Coconea! Hope you like it.

Nanjing - no social media

Muggy air, poor visibility, no chance to reach my blog, facebook or twitter- that was Nanjing/China for the past 3 days. Still an adventure. More photos tomorrow. The day was too long today - one flight home was cancelled, then my suitcase didn´t make it, then the s-bahn didn´t stop where it should, as they are working on the tracks... hours later Im at home. Looks like I missed a nice flying day on Saturday.But the fresh, clean air is a nice change!