Paragliding Accuracy: an Asian World

The 8^th World Paragliding Championship was held in Puncak, Indonesia, 9^th to 17^th August 2015.

It was opened by the Indonesian Minister of Youth and Sport Mr. Imam Nahrowi in a spectacular ceremony attended by several local dignitaries including Mrs. Nurhayti, the Regent of Bogor City. This competition was the biggest World PGA Championship to date with 121 competitors from 19 countries. The competition flying was dominated throughout the week by an unfavourable prevailing wind direction resulting in either side or rear winds on the launch point preventing the competitors from taking off for the first couple of days. Fortunately, local climatic conditions due to thermic activity between the adjacent hills meant the wind reversed for several hours on some of the following days allowing five rounds to be completed.

In a close competition, the top ten competitors were separated by only 10 cms and the top five by only 3 cms.  The competition was won by a local pilot Dede Supratman (Indonesia) closely followed in second position by the highly experienced pilot Matjaž Sluga (Slovenia) with Tomas Lednik (Czech Republic) and Anton Svoljšak (Slovenia) in joint third place, who had identical scores and were unable to be separated as the wind conditions prevented a fly-off on the last day of the competition.

Nunnapat Phuchong from Thailand won the gold medal in the female category followed by Hye  Joung  Cho from South Korea and Jolanta  Romanenk from Lithuania in second and third places respectively.

The winning team was Thailand, followed by Serbia, with the hosts, Indonesia, in third place.

The closing ceremony ended with the FAI flag being forwarded to Albania for the next championships in 2017.

Photos: Andy Cowley

Cover: A spectacular landing but maximum points.

Competitors at the Opening ceremony.

Awaiting favourable launch conditions.

The correct way.

Individual winners.

Thaïland winning team.