Spain’s Víctor “Moncho” Rodríguez Santamarta, flying a Da Vinci paraglider, has been crowned champion of the 9th FAI European Paragliding Accuracy Championship 2026, held from 2 to 10 October in Uroi, Romania. He finished the 12 rounds tied on 22 points with Serbia’s Ivan Pavlov and won the title in the tie-break. Kosovo’s Migjen Shala completed the podium with 31 points.
The championship, an FAI Category 1 event and the most important continental competition of the year in this discipline, brought together 91 pilots from 19 national teams and completed all 12 scheduled rounds. In accuracy, pilots score the distance in centimetres between their first contact with the ground and the centre of the target. The lowest total wins and, from the fifth round onwards, each pilot’s worst result is discarded. If you want to dig deeper into the technique, check out our accuracy masterclass with the Spanish team at the 2022 European Championship in Romania.
Moncho’s consistency
None of his 12 landings was more than 3 centimetres from the centre: he scored 25 before the discard and 22 after it. “I’ve been the most consistent pilot of all, I did 12 rounds without a single mistake,” he told Ojovolador. “Just imagine, 12 landings in a row under 3 centimetres.”
Pavlov had some weaker rounds, up to 7 centimetres, but with two dead-centre landings and his worst result discarded he also reached 22 points. “He made mistakes, but once his worst round was dropped he was level with me,” Moncho said. According to him, both pilots scored a 1 on the first landing of the tie-break. On the next one, Moncho scored 3 centimetres and Pavlov 5. “That’s when I became European champion.”
The Spanish pilot arrived “with high expectations” and eager to reach the podium, well aware of how hard a discipline is in which everything “comes down to centimetres”. He also highlighted the weather: “It’s a pretty difficult site, with adverse conditions, where even very top pilots made serious mistakes that knocked them off the podium.” He was among the leaders from the start: “I was very consistent, very consistent, very consistent, believing in it from the beginning.”
2026 European Accuracy Championship results (top 10)
- Víctor Rodríguez Santamarta (Spain) – 22 points
- Ivan Pavlov (Serbia) – 22
- Migjen Shala (Kosovo) – 31
- Fanol Shala (Kosovo) – 39
- Xhonatan Islami (Albania) – 45
- Vlastimil Kricnar (Czech Republic) – 50
- Faruk Karateke (Turkey) – 59
- Tugay Karateke (Turkey) – 63
- Denis Miftari (Albania) – 90
- Veton Sylaj (Kosovo) – 94
Kübra Cengiz, European champion
In the women’s ranking, Turkey’s Kübra Cengiz took the win with 162 points and 19th place overall. Czech pilot Karolína Koudelová was second (182) and Marketa Tomaskova, Czech-born but now competing for Poland, finished third (190).
In the nations ranking, the Czech Republic won (98 points), ahead of Kosovo (99) and Serbia (102). Spain, with four pilots, finished seventh. The Spanish delegation added another title: David Contreras Lázaro, 13th overall, won the Master category.
More info: Official results (PGACC)
