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Asian Beach Games 2012 - Medal Ceremony and Results

The final duty of the Haiyang Asian Beach Games organisers is the distribution of medals to the worthy winners. As expected, the ceremony was carried out with great precision; medal winners were led to the podium by beautifully dressed women and then given the coveted Asian Beach Games medal by a number of dignitaries. FAI President John Grubbström gave the medals for the Combined class and CIMA President Richard Meredith-Hardy was given the responsibility for team medals.

The respective flags were raised and the anthems were sung. It was a fitting end to a highly successful event and eyes now turn to 2014 for the 4th Asian Beach Games in Phuket, Thailand. See you there !

Results

Asian Beach Games 2012 - Task 11 The Eight [2]

The last day was welcomed by very light winds, ideal for the final task of the competition. With the medal ceremony due around noon today, Competition Director Zhang WEI opted for a slalom and a repeat of the popular “The Eight”.

The on-site organisation had been excellent all week, so take-off was briefed to start in just 20 minutes, with the first competitors taking off on time.

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Asian Beach Games 2012 - Task 10 Economy and Distance [2]

Sheng (CHN) and Macak (THA)Day four of the competition and the weather forecast was for cloud and southerly winds increasing during the day to reach 6m/s by the afternoon.

This was a little too windy for the tasks first planned by the Competition Director, but the decision was taken to start Precision Take-offs and Landings in the hope that the wind did not follow the predictions. Sadly this was not the case and the task was stopped shortly afterwards.

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FAI President visits Asian Beach Games

FAI President John Grubbström flew to Asia this week to visit the 3rd Asian Beach Games in Haiyang, CHN.

The main purpose of the President’s trip was to visit the Powered Paragliding (Paramotoring) event, part of the official programme of the Games, which was taking place on the beach next to the Yellow Sea.

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Asian Beach Games 2012 - Task 9 Economy and Precision

Wow ! This competition just gets more intense. The Competition Director has set a punishing schedule with 9 tasks completed in just three days. The ninth was “Ecomony and Precision”; pilots were given 2 litres of fuel and then had to complete laps around a course. The pilot with the highest number of laps would be the winner.

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Asian Beach Games 2012 - Task 8 Round the Triangle

Day three started with the competition site again surrounded by sea fog. This was no problem for the Competition Director who called a briefing at 0700 to give details on the next task; Round the Triangle. This precision task required pilots to fly around a course of kicking sticks, then circle an inflatable pylon before repeating the kicking sticks course in the opposite direction.

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Asian Beach Games 2012 - Task 7 Pure Economy

 The afternoon of day two brought much improved weather conditions. The clouds had disappeared along with the fog to produce blue skies and hot sun; perfect for the next task of Pure Economy. The rules were delightfully simple; pilots were given 2 litres of fuel and had to stay airborne for as long as possible.

Once the fuelling control had been completed, the task window opened at 1515 local time with free take off until 1615. Competitors tried at every stage to conserve their precious fuel so take-offs were much more relaxed because of the reluctance to use full throttle once airborne. Pilots climbed out slowly and steadily, trying to make the maximum use of the available energy.

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Asian Beach Games 2012 - Task 6 The Eight

Task 6 was the slalom known as “The Eight” because pilots flew circuits in the pattern of a number 8. Two inflatable pylons, each 20m high, marked out the ends of the course with a kicking stick in the centre.

This is always a fast and heavily contested event and The Eight at the Asian Beach Games 2012 proved no different. The results showed a clear winner but the second and third places were just 0.2s apart.

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Asian Beach Games 2012 - Task 5 Bowling Landing

After a long first day, competitors arrived on site at 0615, ready for a second day of what had already become a fierce competition. There was a clear overnight leader in Jiri George MACAK, but it was very early days and George just needed to make one mistake to drop down the order.

With a relatively high cloud base, a clean onshore wind and no sign of the fog that enshrouded the competition site for most of the previous day, the weather conditions were very good and set the scene for another packed day of flying.

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