The 12th FAI Women’s World Championships were held in Garray, Spain from 2nd to 14th Jul. It was a late change of venue to a smaller and fairly constricted site which led to some interesting discussions with the organisers and stewards. At over 3,000 ft AMSL, it took quite some time for the weather conditions to be right for launch leading to late starts and late finishes; long days! No medals at this competition for Team GB but we did end up in 4th overall for the Team Competition and there were a smattering of podium finishes for pilots in Club and Std.
The 6th FAI Junior European Championships were held in Arnborg, Denmark from 29th Jul to 14th Aug in shocking wet and windy weather conditions. At one stage it looked like it wouldn’t be a valid competition but they did manage somehow, to have 4 days. Watching the Task Setting from afar, there were some interesting tasks for example a racing task of 285km with 8 turn points. Well done to Toby Freeland who came away with a Silver medal only ONE POINT short of Gold! The team managed a Bronze medal at this event.
The 27th European Championships took place from July 26th to 11th Aug in Leszno, Poland. The weather was ‘intermittent’ but thankfully, the Weather Forecaster (Elmer from Lithuania) called it just right most of the time to make best use of the available conditions. The 20M boys got off to a flying start (excuse the pun) on day one with a first and second podium place. They kept this good momentum for the remainder of the competition with Pete Harvey and Chris Dawes finishing with a Silver medal only TWO POINTS away from a Gold with Steve Jones and Gary Coppin winning Bronze.
The final competition of the year was the 37th FAI World Championship from 3rd to 15th Dec in Narromine, Australia. As you would expect for a competition at this level, it was a hard fought and keenly contested competition in all classes in some fabulous weather conditions. There were some incredibly varied conditions during the 10 flying days of competition from 43C blue days, to shear wave, fast cumulus days, convergences, showers, storms, smoke and gust fronts. It made for some pretty exciting and rapid flying at the end of which Tom Arscott emerged victorious as Standard Class World Champion. We were oh so very close (less that ONE POINT) for a Team Bronze. A separate and more comprehensive report about this competition has already been published.
Overall, 2023 was a very successful season for the British Gliding Team with a total of five medals including a World Champion. BRING ON 2024.
