09 März 2009

Ball of the Sport in Bremen



The final decision about the sports person of the year of my home city Bremen was made this Saturday at the Ball of the Sport. I was invited to attend the Ball and I could briefly present our small sport of hanggliding - the other four girls did swimming, hurdle-running and rowing. I thought I better wear some feathers so it is easier to tell which sport I come from ;)
Thank you for all your votes on the internet and on the evening of the ball! In the end, it wasn´t quite enough for me to win, but a lot of people that I had never met before came up and told me they voted for me and they are happy to see such a different sport for the first time. The winner was - again - Carolin Nytra, a hurdle runner. I wish I could have met her (I keep trying to talk other athletes into changing to our sport...), but she had to be at a competition that night and could not join the ball.
DAeC president from Bremen, Dirk Aue, was disappointed that I didn´t win, but I must admit that I didn´t expect to become first woman, as the lobby of the other sports is huge compared to ours. I was really happy that I had the chance to participate - and I love dancing, which I enjoyed the whole night! Those 10cm high heels were quite a challenge...
Tonight my family and I are invited to an honouring ceremony in our wonderful town hall of Bremen where we will meet all the other participants again.

Visit in Tokyo

I like work trips when I can meet friends! So I told Moyes Japan dealer Toru Goda san about my March schedule and he organized a dinner for pilots in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It was easy to find the trains to go from our hotel in Chiba to get there, as Japanese trains are very fast and reliable - I wish trains in Germany were on time again (the morning before the flight I had to call my friend to take me to the airport because the Munich s-bahn did not run when I arrived in the station).
It was great to see Homura and Mitsuko again, two women who had participated in the worlds at Monte Cucco. And I had brought some films about these worlds for them, also some new information about the next Tegelberg World Championships. We had quite some time for questions about training, physical and mental training. I always like to help my Japanese friends, because we suffer the same disadvantage in hanggliding - we are small and light pilots. So I try to help them perfom safer and better in the air.
Also I had the possibility to get information about the latest development of Sony video cameras, as there were two really well informed pilots who answered my questions. I would like to produce footage for television flying above and around castle Neuschwanstein, so now I know which cameras to look for.
Coming back from Tokyo, I flew straight up to Bremen where my parents expected me for the big Ball of Sports and an honouring in the town hall of Bremen.