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| 2005 News Page current news is here 2007 news is here 2006 news is here |
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| Russell Ogden is the British Champion
2005 Russell Ogden and his Ozone Proto won the series of three British Open Championships 2005 to become the first British Open Champion and The British Champion 2005. Russell, also British Champion in 2003, lead the championships from the start but was put under pressure from Adrian Thomas throughout. Adrian (Airwave FR Proto) finished second after catching up a few points in the last open. Mark Watts (Gradient Avax RSF) was third followed by Kelly Farina (AirwaveMagic FR) and Neil Roberts (Gradient Avax RSE). In Sixth place and Top serial class was Craig Morgan on his Advance Omega 6. Top woman in the Open Championships and 15th overall was Swiss Anja Kroll on her Gin Boomerang 3. The British Womens Champion 2005 is Abigail Barr after recovering from a poor start in Mayrhofen.
See the full open championships results. See the full british championships results.  XC
League Winners 20052005 XC Winners 1 Graham Steele (wearing hat) 2 Tim Guildford/LouMaurice (tandem) (right of photo) 3 Richard Westgate (left of photo) Photo Competition 2005 Any great photos of this years British Opens are welcomed to our photo competition. Sort through your best shots of this years rounds and find maximum 3 photos to enter. They will be displayed on the gallery with everybody else's and could win; 1st Place £40 2nd place £20 and 3rd place £10 and of course your best pictures would be there for the world to see. Email your photos to preferably in jpeg format and we will do the rest. Final date 31 December, (so we can publish it in Skywings) panel's decision is final, best of luck !!!  Adrian
Thomas Wins the Third British Open 2005 27 to 30 August Bishops Castle (UK) 88 Pilots turned up to compete in the last of the three British Open Championships rounds. Three of the four days were flyable. Adrian Thomas on his Airwave FR Proto won the second and third tasks giving him a convincing win overall! Bruce Goldsmith (Airwave FR Proto) was second. Third and Top Serial was Craig Morgan (Advance Omega 6) and Top Woman was Abigail Barr (UP Targa 2). See the full report. The XCLeague season is not over yet Congratulations to Simon Ford and Graham Steel for completing the first ever Declared FAI Triangles in the UK. The flights were courtesy of mid-week winching at XClent near Cheltenham. Both pilots declared the same course using FAI cylinders as turnpoints; north to Broadway Tower; SE to Stow-on-the-Wold and back to the XClent winch field, a total of 37.1km. Graham completed the triangle in the fastest time and therefore also sets a new British (Local) Record of 7.44km/h for 'Speed around a triangular course of 25km', The flight has also catapulted Graham to the top of the 2005 Paragliding XC League. Well done both of you!  GB wins Bleriot
Cup 2005 16 to 20 Aug Col de Bleyne (France) Neil Roberts lead the Bleriot team to a great win. Even on French soil the Brits were unbeatable. With the largest points win in Bleriot history we brought the cup home. The team (l-r) Alex Coltman, Kelly Farina, Craig Morgan, Burkitt Rudd Steve Etherington, Neil Roberts, reserve Mark Hayman and managed by Mark Graham. Well done team. More in the Bleriot pages.. More British Records Smashed On 23rd August Tim Guildford and Lou Maurice flew their Gradient Golden tandem paraglider to a new (Local) Multiplace Straight Distance Record, flying an incredible 172.3km from Frocester to Cambridge. This eclipses the previous record set 5 years ago by Ulric and Ruth Jessop of 108.6km. This is the second British Record the pair have broken this year. On 15th May, they flew a 27.5km triangle from the Malverns to take the Multiplace Triangle Distance Record as well. With 2 months to go, Tim now also has a commanding lead in the 2005 XC League. Straight Distance to a Declared Goal  record
broken by Mike Aston During the second task of the Mid Wales BPCup on Sunday August 7, many pilots declared a goal near Cirencester hoping to break the (Local) Straight Distance to a Declared Goal Record. Mike Aston aboard his Gradient Avax XC was the only pilot to reach the goal in just over 3 hours. The flight has now been ratified as a new British Record at 108.9km. Congratulations Mike. X-ALPS Finished 1 to 19 Aug in the alps (Europe) Aidan Toase manged to walk further than everyone else in the toughest of paragliding competitions. The weather didn't play ball and the 17 teams had to walk far further than expected. Alex Hofer won, completing the course in 12 days and a bit. Details at www.redbullxalps.com..  Russell
Ogden wins British Open Piedrahita 2005 10 to 16 July in Piedrahita (Spain) 133 pilots competed in the biggest British open yet. Four tasks were completed and Russell Ogden (Ozone proto) won with a convincing margin. Poland's Mali (Axis Mercury) was second and Spaniard Borja Rodriguez (Gin Boomerang 4) was third. More... New British team sponsor We are pleased to announce the support of Lighthouse display international for the 2005/6 season. Lighthouse Display International will be supporting the British Squad in its Boot Camp Training events and the British Team in future Cat 1 Championships around the World. We look forward to a successful year for our pilots and the team. "We hope that the funding will enable some great training camps to be planned to help the team to hone and develop their cross country racing skills for the Paragliding World Championships. "Paragliding is still a relatively young sport where tremendous innovation and development is still moving the sport forward very quickly. This is similar to the business of Lighthouse Display where we are continually innovating and pushing the boundaries of achievement in our field of retail merchandising and display." Bleriot team 2005  The
British Bleriot Team (sponsored by www.elementaldevelopment.com )
used the Mayrhofen Championship as excellent Alpine Race Training.The team seen left to right are; John Ellison, Alex Coltman (vice captain), Peter Taylor, Neil Roberts (captain), Burkitt Rudd, Kelly Farina and Steve Etherington. Captain Neil Roberts plans to develop teamwork and communication skills during the Dutch Open in Piedrahita Spain, before the British Open in July. In August, an Alpine Boot camp based around Col de Bleyne in the Alps Maritime, will allow the final preparations before defending our title against the French the following week. See the Bleriot pages here.. Chris Canata sets the mark. The British (Local) Record for Altitude Gain has never been officially set. On May 14 2005, Chris Canata flew from Aonach Mor to near Luss, and on the way climbed from a low point of 1909ft to a high point of 8209ft, a gain of 6300ft (1920m). This is a worthy mark and sets the British (Local) Record. Have a look at the flight on the new Paragliding XC Web Site, and a write up about the week from fellow pilot Brian Steele on www.flyingfever.net/scotland_briansteele.html. On May 1 2005, a rewrite of the FAI Sporting Code allowed GPS altitude to validate record and badge claims. If you think that you have bettered this achievement and have a barograph trace prior to May 1 2005 or a GPS Altitude Trace or Barograph Trace after May 1 then please let us know at  Mayrhofen Won by Russell Ogden 29 May - 4 June Mayrhofen Austria Six days out of 7 were tasked, the last day rained. Go to see the full Mayrhofen report. XC League up and running The XC League Pages on the website have been updated. It is now possible to upload your gps tracks, and view the tracks that have been uploaded. Take a look at the XCLeague. The website has undergone a few changes. The registration and log-in process have been changed. Please be patient and pass on any comments to World Championship has finished  14 to 26 March in GV (Brazil) 10 tasks were completed in light conditions. Switzerland, Germany and the Czech republic came in 1, 2 and 3, whilst Britain came in 7th. The British team were (L to R): Mark Watts, Russell Ogden, Steve Ham, Bruce Goldsmith, Adrian Thomas, Abigail Barr and Nicky Moss. See the Report.. There are photos in the Gallery.. Also see: www.2005worlds.com.. Bright Open 2005 19 to 26 Feb in Bright (Australia). Steve Ham comes third in the Bright open. This is his second podium place in Australia after changing to the Gradiant Avax RSE. report.. British Squad 2005 announced This year's squad are:
Manilla XC Open: England Expects & Gets 2 to 9 Jan2005 in Manilla (Australia).  Eight days of open distance competition saw five valid tasks in Manilla Australia. The longest flight was 224km by the overall winner Ross Johnstone on an Advance Omega 6. 119 pilots flew a total of 27,067 kms! Britain's Steve Ham (Snowdon Gliders Gradient Avax RSE) came third overall. Top team were "England Expects" (pictured from left to right) Mark Graham, Nicky Moss, Steve Ham and Paul Russell taking home 2000 dollars in CASH. Full news and report.. Brits triumph in Himalayas 6 to 9 November 2004 in Bir (India).   Jamie Messenger took second place in the four day competition in the foothills of the Himalayas, whilst Nicky Moss was the top placed woman. Nikolay Shorokhov (Russia) won, taking all 4000 points for the second year running. Ulric Jessop came fourth overall. report.. results.. check out the gallery for some holiday snaps.  Richard & Judy win 2004 National XC League31 October in the UK. 2004 was one of the closest battles for the title for a long time with five pilots flying a cumulative total of more than 500km. Onboard his Gradient Aspen, Richard Westgate clocked 593km over his 6 best flights. more.. Bruce Goldsmith Second in European Championships 1 to 12 October 2005 in Kalavrita (Greece) After 5 valid tasks in 12 days, Swiss pilot Christian Maurer took the winners podium, with Bruce second. Italy won the team competition with the Swiss in second whilst Britain came in eighth. more.. Bruce Goldsmith Wins British  Championships
2004 12 to 18 September 2004 in Castejon de Sos (Spain) Bruce onboard his Airwave Magic FR took a win in the British Paragliding Open and final leg of the British Paragliding Championships, becoming the new British Paragliding Champion for the third time. Mark Watts took second place some 1700 points behind. Bruce not only won the series outright but made a clean sweep of all 3 opens as well. This is the first time anyone has beaten all of the other pilots at every leg of the British Championship. No other pilot has won the championships three times. Its a remarkable feat and an indication of Bruce's great competition form of late. Full results.. Team GB win the Bleriot Cup 2004  Congratulations to the Great Britain Paragliding & Hanggliding Team in bringing back the Bleriot cup to the UK after many years in the hands of the French.
L to R pictured:
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2005 Track logs and animations
I've finally
managed to post the track logs (igc files all zipped up) for the Mayrhofen, Piedrahita and Bishops
Castle 2005 Opens. Also you can see the animation of the top 5-10
pilots in Mayrhofen and Piedrahita.
BPCup Cat II
5 to 8 August Bishops Castle (UK)Well done to Mike Aston for winning the Mid Wales open. Well done to Gareth Aston for winning the BP Cup this year. They are not brothers! Details at www.bpcup.co.uk Ozone Chabre Open 05
11 to 18 June in Laragne (France).6 days out of 7 with one of those as a practice day. A good serial class, friendly competition. The overall winner with handicapped scoring was Judy Leden, who won an Ozone tandem to be used for Flyability training. See the full results at www.flylaragne.com British
Club Challenge
To start you on the competition
route we recommend the British Club Challenge.
A chance to learn in a friendly club atmosphere. Take a look at www.flybcc.co.uk Competition Sponsors
We would like to welcome the following sponsors
who will be supporting the Championships at
the various rounds: Ozone, Snowdon, Windtech,
Flybubble, Green
Dragons, Leavesley
Aviation, Aerofix, Airworks,
Flying Fever, XC
Mag, FaceWest and FlightEx. Thanks also to Kelly Farina, Steve Ham and Mark Leavesley for helping to organise the three opens this year. Manilla
for 2007 Worlds
In Guatamala the CIVL / FAI have just announced that the 2007 Paragliding
World Championship will be held in Manilla Australia. Congratulations to
Godfrey Wenness and his team. It should be good. NEW Bleriot Team Sponsors
The Paragliding Competitions Panel would like to welcome on board, team development specialists Elemental Development Ltd. As Bleriot team sponsor. Elemental directors Ben Keayes and Burkitt Rudd (both keen pilots themselves) are pleased to provide their assistance to the Bleriot Paragliding team in 2005. more.. 2004 Champs DVDs
John Panter has spent 2004 following paragliding
competitions around the world and has produced a film diary of all three
rounds of the 2004 British Paragliding Championships competition series. Using 3 cameras, this film provides an insight into what competing at national level involves. It contains opinions and accounts from top pilots like Russel Ogden and Bruce Goldsmith. Runtime: 84 minutes £20 inclusive of P+P Visit John's website now. Web
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Last updated 05-Jul-2007 | ||||||||||||
