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"World Cup Aksaray, Turkey 2023"
Summary written by Ruth Jessop
Today was another day of cloudless blue skies. With the wind from the northwest, a four-turnpoint, 80.5 km corridor task was set taking the pilots south.
It was a very fast task where choosing the right line was all important, some were lifty, some sinky. The max lift was 6.7m/s and the max sink was 6.7m/s!
The race divided into two groups just after the first turnpoint.
The geometry of the circles and wind direction meant that it wasn’t entirely obvious which route would be the fastest.
Choosing how to stay upwind was important. If you worked your way windwards on the zig going with the wind, you didn’t lose much, but if you did it on the zag, going into the wind, you lost a lot of positions.
To the right of the optimum line there were some very lifty lines. The two groups got separated height-wise by about 1000m.
The group on the left of the optimum line caught up height-wise but couldn’t catch up with the leaders.
There were ‘haze domes,’ little clouds of dust forming on top of the inversion layer, that marked the lift on the right of the course line.
The top five this morning had very mixed fortunes in this tricky task. However, having discards they kept their top 5 places.
In the words of Andrei Gaia, ‘it’s a desert out there!’
The first 96 pilots made goal, and thus all flew the same distance, and gained the same distance points. Today’s winner is therefore the one with a combination of the best speed points and lead out points.
Top 3 speed point winners – the fastest pilots round the course
01:43:52: Ferdinand VOGEL flying at an average speed of 41.0 km/h
01:45:26: Soheil BARIKANI
01:45:43: Johannes BAUMGARTEN
Top 3 leading point baggers – those who were in the lead the most
167.6: Yassen SAVOV
164.4: Ferdinand VOGEL
156.5: Soheil BARIKANI
Top 3 in the task
1: Ferdinand VOGEL
2: Soheil BARIKANI
3: Petr KOSTRHUN
Best newcomer: Markus ANDERS (13)
Top 3 ladies in the task
1: Alexia FISCHER
2: Jenny O'NEIL
3: Anca TABARA
Top 3 teams in the task
1: Jack & Jones
2: Kortel Design
3: Parastick
In the team competition the top two pilots in each team are scored and the second one gives the ranking. The highest placed second team pilot was Johannes BAUMGARTEN flying for team Jack & Jones.
Tomorrow the armbands will be:
Yellow armband (overall race leader): Stan RADZIKOWSKI
Rose armband (leading lady): Alexia FISCHER
Green armband (most leading points): Stan RADZIKOWSKI
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