Spain’s Dalmau goes atop of Paragliding World Cup

The sleepy town of Bir was buzzing with activity as the Paragliding World Cup saw frenetic action in what was a tough second task here on Wednesday.

Locals and fans turned out in good numbers as the 117 pilots in the fray displayed their skills in demanding conditions on a route covering 75.58 km with Spain’s Xevi Bonet Dalmau emerging the frontrunner, zooming to the top of the leaderboard with a cool 1,000 points.

On the day, Dalmau and Michael Kuffer of Switzerland finished with identical times of 2hr: 41min:02sec. Kuffer, however, was placed second with overall 952 points. Germany’s Andreas Malecki was third with 912 points.

The eight home pilots, in particular, had a tough time with none of them managing to reach Bir, the landing point. “Today’s task was tough and the conditions made it even more challenging. It was a World Cup-level task that separated the boys from the men,” said meet director Debu Choudhury.

The day’s trying conditions saw a lot of changes in the leaderboard too and overnight leader Maxime Pinot (974 points) from France finished 11th in place.

Experienced pilots Jurij Vidic and Julien Wirtz too were stung by the flying conditions. Writz completed the task in 12th place, while Vidic ended 14th.

Among the women, Yuki Sato (716 points), Petra Slivova (548 points) and Annalena Hinestroza (278 points) completed the top three. But Sato was the only one to complete the task.