{"id":21005,"date":"2026-10-13T11:26:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/?p=21005"},"modified":"2026-10-13T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:27:00","slug":"european-paragliding-accuracy-championship-2026-moncho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/european-paragliding-accuracy-championship-2026-moncho\/","title":{"rendered":"Moncho crowned European paragliding accuracy champion after a tense tie-break with Ivan Pavlov"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Moncho,
Moncho scoring a dead centre at the European Paragliding Accuracy Championship<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Spain\u2019s V\u00edctor \u201cMoncho\u201d Rodr\u00edguez Santamarta, flying a Da Vinci<\/a> 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\u2019s Ivan Pavlov and won the title in the tie-break. Kosovo\u2019s Migjen Shala completed the podium with 31 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>, 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\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moncho\u2019s consistency<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

None of his 12 landings was more than 3 centimetres from the centre: he scored 25 before the discard and 22 after it. \u201cI\u2019ve been the most consistent pilot of all, I did 12 rounds without a single mistake,\u201d he told Ojovolador. \u201cJust imagine, 12 landings in a row under 3 centimetres.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Pili
Pili and Moncho, the top couple of paragliding accuracy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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. \u201cHe made mistakes, but once his worst round was dropped he was level with me,\u201d 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. \u201cThat\u2019s when I became European champion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spanish pilot arrived \u201cwith high expectations\u201d and eager to reach the podium, well aware of how hard a discipline is in which everything \u201ccomes down to centimetres\u201d. He also highlighted the weather: \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty difficult site, with adverse conditions, where even very top pilots made serious mistakes that knocked them off the podium.\u201d He was among the leaders from the start: \u201cI was very consistent, very consistent, very consistent, believing in it from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026 European Accuracy Championship results (top 10)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. V\u00edctor Rodr\u00edguez Santamarta (Spain) \u2013 22 points<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Ivan Pavlov (Serbia) \u2013 22<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Migjen Shala (Kosovo) \u2013 31<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Fanol Shala (Kosovo) \u2013 39<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Xhonatan Islami (Albania) \u2013 45<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Vlastimil Kricnar (Czech Republic) \u2013 50<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Faruk Karateke (Turkey) \u2013 59<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Tugay Karateke (Turkey) \u2013 63<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Denis Miftari (Albania) \u2013 90<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Veton Sylaj (Kosovo) \u2013 94<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    K\u00fcbra Cengiz, European champion<\/h2>\n\n\n
    \n
    \"Women\u2019s
    Women\u2019s podium: 1st K\u00fcbra Cengiz, 2nd Karol\u00edna Koudelov\u00e1 and 3rd Marketa Tomaskova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    In the women\u2019s ranking, Turkey\u2019s K\u00fcbra Cengiz took the win with 162 points and 19th place overall. Czech pilot Karol\u00edna Koudelov\u00e1 was second (182) and Marketa Tomaskova, Czech-born but now competing for Poland, finished third (190).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    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 L\u00e1zaro, 13th overall, won the Master category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    More info:<\/strong> Official results (PGACC)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    V\u00edctor \u201cMoncho\u201d Rodr\u00edguez Santamarta wins the 2026 European Paragliding Accuracy Championship in Uroi (Romania) after a tie-break with Ivan Pavlov. K\u00fcbra Cengiz takes the women\u2019s title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2245,524],"tags":[1143,2243],"class_list":["post-21005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-accuracy","category-paragliding","tag-moncho-rodriguez-en","tag-precision-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21012,"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21005\/revisions\/21012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ojovolador.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}