Julian Wirtz claims top honours in Task Three

Paragliding legend Julian Wirtz displayed his class, excelling in Task Three of the AAI World Cup here on Thursday, as improved weather conditions and a slightly easy task saw 116 pilots in action.The France-born Wirtz, who occupied the world no. 1 spot for close to 20 weeks in the last seven months, blitzed the speed section finishing the 93.3 km task in two hours, 46 minutes and 41 seconds. It was a marked improvement from Task 2, where he had finished 12th. His effort earned him 995 points.New Zealand’s Matt Senior took second place for the day while Maxime Pinot, who won the first task, put up an impressive show taking third place with 962 points.

Spain’s Xevi Bonet Dalmau — T2 winner — was off colour on the day, but continued to stay atop the leaderboard with a total of 2,344 points after three tasks. On the day, Dalmau ended 18th. After two tough days, home pilots too had something to cheer. The experienced Ajay Kumar finished the day in the 48th place taking two hours, 59min and 28sec for which he collected 845 points. Gurpreet Dhindsa, who is well versed with the conditions here, was 64th and took home 750 points. Arvind Paul was the third home pilot to complete the task. He was placed 71st.

In the women’s category, Yuki Sato consolidated her place on the top of the leaderboard with yet another first place finish. She took 3hr 4min 49sec. Czech Republic’s Petra Slivova was second with a time of 3hr 17min 13sec, while Yael Margelisch came third place (3hr 22min 42sec).