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Twelve days of competition concluded on Thursday 13th of July with 5 valid tasks and the overall title to Luca Donini (IT, Gradient Avax), an occasional comp pilot who gave the surprise just like in the Worlds 2001 –where he also got the gold. Petra Krausova (CZ, Mac Para Magus) keeps the title of female European Champion and adds one more gold medal to her already large collection of trophies and achievements. Second in the overall results was previous Euro-champ Chrigel Maurer (CH, Advance) and third, Tomas Brauner (CZ, Mac Para Magus). In women, Ewa Wisnierska (DE, Advance) was 2nd and Caroline Brille(FR, Advance) was third. Switzerland is the winning Nation, with Italy 2nd and the Czech Republic 3rd –despite the accident of their top pilot Martin Orlik, who only flew the first 2 tasks. A total of 134 pilots from 28 countries -16 women- fought this continental championship. The Europeans, held in the area of Morzine-Avoriaz and Les Gets (Haute Savoie, France), were not blessed by the best of weathers and 6 days passed between the 1st and 2nd tasks due to thunderstorms and rain in the area. The conditions allowed for two long tasks of 88 and 91 km though, that took the pilots near some of the most impressive peaks of the area, and enjoying stunning views of the Alps. Polemics were not absent during the champs, with a jury decision that punished 6 pilots for flying in the clouds on task 2 by taking 50% of their task points off. The meet director wanted it to be 100% of their task points, while some of the teams claimed that many more pilots were taking advantage of cloud flying.
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*Great pictures in our ALBUM |
The Europeans had daily news coverage by Theflyingeye / Ojovolador.com, which was a very interesting work as our pilot and photographer flew every task with the competitors to take good pictures of the comp and we reported what happened every day there, including results. We saw a high interest in the competition through a remarkable increase in the visits to our site: from a daily average of 2500 visits (June) we went up to 4000 visits every day between July 2nd and 14th, with some days of more than 5000 visits! Many thanks to our sponsors who supported this communication work: Avasport, Gin Gliders, SOL Paragliders, Ozone, the tourist board of Les Gets, and the organization of the Europeans 2006.
During the prize giving ceremony the candidature of Talloires (Annecy, France) for the Worlds 2009 was announced. The next Europeans in 2008 will be held in Serbia.
*Read our summary article of these Europeans with a selection of the best images, in Ojovolador.com: http://www.ojovolador.com/eng/read/reports/europg_06/index.htm
*Full results: http://ojovolador.com/press/sponsors/official-results/
