New Delhi: Following two days of wait after bad weather led to cancellation of tasks, blue skies and consistent wind greeted pilots at the AAI Paragliding World Cup in Bir Billing on Tuesday. France’s Maxime Pinot was the top performer in Task One, with a total time of 3 hours, 1 minute and 50 seconds.
Hot on his wingtips was Jurij Vidic of Slovenia — World No.2 — who completed the run of the course a mere six seconds behind Pinot. “Conditions were really good today. At the start it was a bit bumpy, so it was important to avoid mistakes. I did not take too many risks. But after the turnaround, I started pushing and built up a good speed. Once I broke free of the pack, I managed to remain ahead,” said Pinot.
Spain’s Xevi Bonet Dalmau was third with 3:02:10 while Torsten Siegel of Germany and France’s Louis Gerin-Jean posted 3:02:16 each to complete the top five in the standings.
Among the Indians, Ajay Kumar returned the best result finishing in 47th place. He covered the distance of 97.73 km in 3:23:4 while Vijay Soni was placed 50th. He took a total time of 3:24:27.
Gurpreet Dhindsa completed the task in 3:28:19 and was 52nd. Dhindsa had to dig deep into his experience as he broke one string of the glider just before take off. Kumar, Soni and Dhindsa were the only home pilots out of the eight in the competition who managed to complete the day’s task.
“My objective for the day was to finish the task, which was quite technical. I am pleased with my performance and will build on this start,” said Soni. A total of 118 pilots attempted the first task of the event.
