Paragliding World Cup - Task 3 - Brasov, Romania

A video summary of the competition's third task.
Today started off with lots of promise with tantalising beautiful blue skies.
A 70km task taking the pilots on a triangular tour north of Sacele was set. It gave the field an option of taking the flats or the hills.
With most of the pilots managing to break through the inversion just in time for the start the main gaggle went for the hills with a very small group going for the flats.
Today was tricky from the start as the leaders started to get flushed out of the hills. The strong north westerly wind and weak thermals pushed the pilots up into the gullies in the hills so a lot of pilots fled the area. Some pilots managed to jump from one mountain to another to get to the first turn point.
The flats were possibly working better but having limited pilots to scout the air the gaggle in the hills took the lead.
After the first turn point the pilots pushed out into the flats under the cloudless blue skies. At one point it looked as if it was going to be a glide to the ground.
After topping up to base the lead gaggle went on a long glide to the furthest turn point. By this time some of the pilots from the flats were on their heels.
For the rest of the way it was weak thermals and lots of leap frogging at the front as those who pushed out inevitably got low and had to throttle back.
There was a mix of survival climbs, pushing low and full bar to navigate the intermittent lift.
Between the 3rd turn point and ESS it shaded over and there was a head wind. Some of the lead gaggle pushed a bit too low or too hard or too early and unfortunately bombed out. The remainder who had patience and got enough height were rewarded with goal.
Task 3 turned everything on its head. Well done to Andrei Gaia who was the first of this morning’s top ten to make goal and claimed the top spot on the podium and to Jinhee Baek, the only lady in goal. Well done to top team: Alas del Hombre - Bogdan-Tudor Selever, Andrei Gaia, Dana Creta, Endre Cota.
It was a long day with pilots getting to goal just before the task deadline.
Summary written by Ruth Jessop
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