PGComps Current News

British Open Competitions 2006

Fri 23 June - Mon 26 June: SE Wales - UK	Won by Jim Mallinson: Competition Report
Mon 24 July - Sat 29 July: Montalegre (N Portugal)	Won by Ramon Morillas: Competition Report
Sat 26 August - Fri 01 September: Ager (Spanish Pyrenees)	Won by Xevi Bonet: Competition Report

For more information go to the results page.

2006 News Page
2007 news is here
2005 news is here

British Team: World Championships Manilla
The team selected to represent the UK in the World Championships in Manilla, Australia in February 2007 is: Adrian Thomas, Bruce Goldsmith, Steve Ham, Russell Ogden, Louise Burnham and Nicky Moss. Based on the nations ranking the UK are entitled to enter a team of 4 men + 2 women. This may be increased to 5 men if additional places become available in the December re-allocation. In this event, Mark Watts has been selected as the fifth male team member. Congratulations and we wish the team the best of luck! Read more about selection here.
More news from the event will be posted as we have it.
Check out the Worlds website here.

British Squad 2007
The British Squad selected for training in 2007 is as follows : Adrian Thomas, Bruce Goldsmith, Craig Morgan, Fiona Macaskill, Innes Powell, John Ellison, Kai Coleman, Louise Burnham, Mark Leavesley, Mark Watts, Nia Harland, Nicky Moss, Steve Ham, Steve Nash and Russell Ogden.

Many of the squad are intending to enter the Paragliding World Cup tour, the highest competition circuit in the world.
It is hoped that Bruce Goldsmith and Russell Ogden will be mentoring our top pilots during the World Cup events in preparation for the Europeans in 2008. Read more here.

Adrian Thomas is British Champion 2006
The British Championship was won by Adrian Thomas with series leader Steve Ham pipped at the post to second place and Mark Watts third. 10 tasks were flown over the 2006 series in Wales, Portugal and Spain.

See the full Championship results and presentation

Xevi Bonet wins Àger
26 August - 01 September Àger, Spain:
The third and final competition of the 2006 series has now finished in Àger. The competition was won by local Catalan pilot Xevi Bonet with Bruce Goldsmith in second and Mark Watts in third.
See the full Àger competition report and results.

Ramon Morillas wins Portugal
24 - 29 July Montalegre, Portugal:
The second open championships was won by Spaniard Ramon Morillas on board his Advance Omega Proto.
3 tasks were completed.

See the full report and results.

Jim Mallinson Wins First of the 3 Champs 2006
23 - 26 Jun South East Wales.
2 tasks were completed; indifferent Welsh weather playing a big part in the procedings.

See the full report and results.

Manilla PreWorlds Series, Kiwi Open
24 Feb to 2 Mar 06, Manilla, Australia
The Kiwi Open closely followed by the Pre-Worlds are well finished in Manilla. A good gaggle of British pilots were lined-up to strutt their stuff.
Kiwi Open Report. No pre-worlds report 'cause I wasn't there.

Australian Open 2006, Bright
11 to 18 Feb 06, Bright, Australia
Steve Ham opened his bid for Australian supremacy by coming eighth in the Australian Open in Bright.
Steve won the first day and got to goal every day aboard his new Airwave Magic 4.
See the Australian Open Report.
New Bright photos in the Gallery.

2005 British Open Photo Competition
Pilots last year were asked to send up to 3 of their best photos from any of the British Opens for entry into a photo competition with cash prizes. Some great photos were submitted and we would like to thank all those that did so.
The Panel have been looking over them and the results are as follows:-

1st Place - Bruce Goldsmith (UK) - Photo of Adrian Thomas at cloud base in Wales.
2nd Place - Kerry Roberts (UK) - Show me the way Home; cloud street in Wales.
3rd Place - David Willemoth (Sweden) - On glide to the turn point out in the valley at Mayrhofen.

All entries and other photos taken during competitions can be found on the gallery pages.

If other pilots have any good photos from last years comps (or in the future from this years) and would like to share them with the rest of the paragliding world then please email them to

We hope to run a similar competition at the end of 2006, so get snapping.


Bruce - Winner	Kerry - 2nd

David - 3rd

British Squad 2006
This years British Squad earmarked for Squad training and boot camps for 2006 are as follows.
Men: Russell Ogden, Adrian Thomas, Mark Watts, Kelly Farina, Neil Roberts, Craig Morgan, Roger Fowkes, Steve Etherington, Steve Ham, Alex Coltman, Mark Hayman and Ulric Jessop.
Women: Abigail Barr, Louise Burnham and Nicky Moss

Many of the squad are intending to enter the Paragliding World Cup tour, the highest competition circuit in the world.
It is hoped that Bruce Goldsmith and Russell Ogden will be mentoring our top pilots during the World Cup events in preparation for the Cat 1 comps of the European Championships (Morzine) in July 2006 and the World Championships (Australia) in Feb 2007.

Bleriot Team 2006
The Bleriot Team for 2006 are:
Captain Burkitt Rudd, Vice Captain Charlie Merrett, Gareth Aston, John Ellison, Mike Aston, Aidan Toase and Reserve Nigel Prior.

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.


Russell Ogden	Craig Morgan	Anja Kroll	Abigail Barr

See the full open championships results.
See the full british championships results.

XC League winners 2005

XC League Winners 2005
2005 XC Winners

1 Graham Steele (wearing hat)
2 Tim Guildford/LouMaurice (tandem) (right of photo)
3 Richard Westgate (left of photo)

XC League Winners

The results of the 2006 XC League can be seen here.
The prize-giving will be at the Sport Leisure and Aviation Show on Saturday 2nd December at the NEC.

British Team Selection

CIVL are currently discussing & altering the team selection system for Category 1 events ( The World Championship & European Championship etc.) As a result of this we are delaying publication of the British Team selection criteria for future events (2008 onwards) until such time as a decision has been made by CIVL. The next scheduled meeting of CIVL is in February 2007 & we hope to be in a position to finalise our British Team selection criteria during March 2007.
Thank you for your patience while we work to develop the most appropriate format for selecting our future British Teams. Read more here.

Online Pilot Survey 2006

The Comps Panel would like to thank you if you completed the online survey. We shall now go and study the results and draw some lovely conclusions.

New Comps Panel

The Competitions Panel voted some changes to membership at a meeting held in Àger. Calvo relinquished the role of Chairman & Mike Aston stepped down as Vice Chairman - we thank them for all their hard work in these roles.
Good luck to Richard Bungay (Chairman) & Nicky Moss (Vice Chairman) and new members Matt Church & Charlie Merrett. A full panel members list and contact details are available here.
Phil Mackereth wishes to hand over the reins to a new Complines Editor from the beginning of January 2007. Can anyone who is interested in this role please contact the panel as soon as possible.

Bleriot Cup 2006

The Bleriot was retained by Team UK. Read the report here.

European Champs 06

2 Jul to 13 Jul, Morzine, France
The European championships have finished. The toughest cat I competition on the circuit:

The pilots selected to represent the UK at the European Paragliding Championships 2006 in Morzine were:
1. Bruce Goldsmith
2. Adrian Thomas
3. Russell Ogden
4. Mickele Farina
5. Mark Watts
F1. Louise Burnham
Res Mark Hayman

See the competition report. More at europaragliding.com
and official results at
ojovolador.com/press

Big bucks in Serial Class

Serial Class winner Steve Ham with his £500 cheque from Cross Country Magazine

There are more incentives than ever for pilots flying certified gliders in this year's Championships. Cross Country magazine are putting up a £500 cash prize for the overall winner of this year's Serial Class, and there's a free skiing holiday up for grabs for the top DHV2 from www.chaletchardons.com
This is all in addition to Ozone's longstanding overall Serial Class sponsorship. The Competitions Panel support the idea of Serial Class and see it as encouraging pilots to progress by flying certified gliders and not jumping onto comp wings too early. So, here is a fantastic reason to stay within serial class, whether it be DHV2-3 or DHV2.

Gravitron: World Cup Tour Sponsors

The British Paragliding Team are pleased to announce a new sponsor for our Paragliding World Cup Tour. Leading the way in high powered electric, Racing karts, Aqua karts, Snow mobiles, Amphi-bugs, Dragsters and many more fun products. www.gravitron.co.uk Designing some of Britain's best loved karting and Aqua race courses, Gravitron provide design and manufacture world wide. This years World Cup circuit visits Brazil, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and Reunion Island. The World Wide TV and magazine coverage will hopefully expose Gravitron to new markets and enthusiasts. With a very strong British Team aiming to ascend the podiums of competitions across the World, Gravitron's sponsorship will be a great help to the squad.

2006 BPCup dates

The dates for the British Paragliding Cup are as follows:
Dales / Lakes BPC (FAI2) 28 April - 1 May.
Snowdonia BPC 13 -14 May.
Borders / Tinto BPC (FAI2) 26 -29 May.
South East Wales BPC (FAI2) 8 -11 July.
North Wales BPC 12 -13 August.
For more details go to www.bpcup.co.uk

Competition Sponsors

We would like to welcome the following sponsors who will be supporting the Championships at the various rounds: Ozone, Snowdon, Green Dragons, Leavesley Aviation, Aerofix, Airworks, Flying Fever, XC Mag, FaceWest and FlightEx.