World Cup Sacele - Brasov, Romania 2023 - Task 3 - Date 01/07/2023
Dear Pilots and Partners,
Summary written by Ruth Jessop
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 - Selever Bogdan-Tudor, Andrei Gaia, Dana Creta, Endre Cota.
It was a long day with pilots getting to goal just before the task deadline.
A big thank you to everyone who has made this such a diverse World Cup, to the pilots who made the most of every opportunity to do other things on the rainy days, from visiting Romania’s legendary castles and taking part in less weather dependent activities.
A big thank you to Anca our meet director, the Task Committee: Igor Casu, Martin Jovanoski and Stan Radzikowski. General organiser: Cristian Deacu.
Particular thanks to the chairlift at Bunloc and to the Mayor and town council in Brasov for their warm welcome.
A big thank you to Malo Richard for giving up so much of his free time to do a great job on Instagram.
The top 3 in today’s task
1: Selever BOGDAN-TUDOR
2: Jurij VIDIC
3: Ivan CENTA
Best newcomer: Dmitry KALITA (7th)
Top 3 ladies in the task
1: Jinhee BAEK
2: Tomoko YOSHIKAWA
3: Capucine DELIOT
Top 3 teams in the task
1: Woody Valley
2: Alas del Hombre
3: Northwest Paragliding
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 Federico NEVASTRO flying for team Woody Valley.
Top 3 overall in Brasov, Romania 2023
1: Andrei GAIA
2: Nicolas DINH
3: Ivan CENTA
Best newcomer: Marcin WIRSKI (23)
Top 3 ladies overall
1: Jinhee BAEK
2: Tomoko YOSHIKAWA
3: Capucine DELIOT
Top 3 teams overall
1: Alas del Hombre
2: Ozone
3: Parapente Mag
Instagram: officialparaglidingworldcup
