And another spot for HG on Trace TV!

Just a brief spot for our sport, but this channel is out in 109 countries with millions of subscribers - there must be some new guys interested in our sport somewhere in the world! Let´s teach them how to soar the sky!

PR for our sport

Since I didn´t have enough time to join the hang gliding challenge this time, instead I went to a few interviews this week.
On Tuesday, Marcel Wagner interviewed me in the old castle of Burg Katzenstein for a regional TV channel. It helps a lot if the presenter of a show flies paragliders and cessnas ;) it was a lot of fun to do half an hour of talk with him!

For Red Bull Media House I went to the beautiful setting of Mondsee to do an interview about Red Bull Flugtag for a compilation of the Flugtag history. This interview was in English, and the show will be aired some time in October - I will post the link as soon as I have it!

Matthias Dolderer in Zell am See

Sometimes when it´s good weather for hang- and paragliding, also our powerful aerobatic friends are out... landing at Zell am See/Schmittenhöhe yesterday, it was a nice surprise to suddenly get a phantastic air show by Matthias Dolderer! Enjoy the short clip here!

adidas outdoor athletes meeting in Friedrichshafen

Today at the adidas outdoor meeting in Friedrichshafen we were introduced to the latest in fabric development and new products. Exciting new gear will be on the market soon, very lightweight, pleasant to wear and easy to travel with! It was great to meet our friends from the adidas outdoor team, but also 46 of the top athletes of all sorts of different mountain sports were here today - great inspiration!

 

Medals for Team D!

Congratulations to my team colleagues for the silver medal in the rigid class team score, and to individual silver medal for Norbert Kirchner and gold medal for Tim Grabowski!
I finished with the bronze medal this time in the individual score, and in 4th place in the team score, all on my own ;)
Yoko Isomoto from Japan is the new women´s world champion, and Françoise Dieuzeide won the silver medal.

Preliminary results

13 points for the task yesterday, and 9 points for a bomb out in women´s class, so all stayed as is. Yoko is the new women´s world champion, Françoise is 2nd, and I am 3rd.
In rigid class, Tim is the new world champion, Norbert is 2nd and Christopher Friedl 3rd.
In sports class, Mario won, Piero 2nd and Balasz 3rd.
In class 2, Manfred won, Andi Hediger came 2nd and Steve Cox 3rd.

Congratulations to the well deserved winners!

Dark clouds over Annecy

This morning the sky is covered with dark clouds and I already heard some sounds like thunder. It displays our mood - a tragedy happened yesterday. Japanese rigid wing pilot Masakazu Kobayashi died during his flight. We are all shocked and mourning with the Japanese team. This was the first time ever that a fatal accident happened during a World Championship I competed in.
Coming back to headquarter, I was greeted by Stephane Malbos and told I had been chosen for a doping control test. The FAI had ordered a doping test for pilots during our competition, that was a first of for all of us too. Well, not all of us - only Francoise Dieuzeide, Mario, Balasz and me got controlled, as far as I know.
It was an absurd szenario, me crying my eyes out being heartbroken for my Japanese friends, sitting on the toilet being closely watched by the friendly woman from the doping control to make sure I don´t pull some other urine sample out of a pocket - not easy to pee in that situation, but eventually i managed to follow the instructions.
They said it takes 4 to 6 weeks to get the results, but we will only hear back if the samples were positive. Im pretty sure they won´t, as I see no possiblities for doping in hang gliding, but I will keep you posted.
Francoise or Yoko won this competition, and I think I stayed in 3rd. It was a really stable day, we only started at 5pm (!) into our task, many girls went directly to the nice Doussard landing field, so there won´t be many points.
A very sad finish for all of us.

Day 9: cancelled, rainy day

At noon the day was finally cancelled as the drizzle just didn´t want to stop. One last rest day before another race day!

Task 5: Semnoz, 85km around 3 turnpoints

A tough, stable day today with a base barely higher than 1800m gave us a late launch and a hard time in the air. We could take off at 3pm, and the race started at 3.30, going down the Semnoz ridge, back over the lake into the east, to Thones and to Doussard. Nobody made goal with all turnpoints today, even though some women landed in Doussard on the way to the 2nd turnpoint.
I had a good race to the first turnpoint just soaring the ridge and only stopping at take off again on the way back to cross the lake. Still not enough time to get to the second turnpoint. I landed just short on a slope where Françoise Dieuzede already showed me the wind direction and the best approach. Even nicer - she said that I can go back to hq with her retrieve. Her daughter and her dad were there 15 minutes later! Can´t get much better :)
A perfect landing, but about 20km short of goal. We might have gone furthest, as we only saw rigid wings going past above our heads. It won´t be a high scoring day though because nobody made goal today. 
Rain tomorrow, but a good day on Thursday hopefully. We have some points to catch up!

Task 4: 70km around 2 turnpoints

The weather improved quickly after the rain left, base went up to 2200m, and we had fun racing around the task. Most of the way, I was flying with Julia and the Françoises, but in the end Julia pulled ahead and won the day by a margin of 9 minutes on us. I was 4th of the day.
Looks like another two or three tasks can be possible here.
Suan was first in goal in rigid class, but there were some problems with his scoring. Tim was second, Norbert 4th and Dieter Kamml 8th, so team Germany scored well yesterday!