~ Done and dusted! ~
This event certainly featured plenty of dust, however, according to the competing pilots, they experienced the most amazing gliding conditions any pilot can ever dream of! Conditions like a 2500 m cloud base with a 3 to 6 m/s climb created gliding heaven.
In 2010 JS entered the contest scene at the 31st WGC in Szeged with six JS1s competing in the 18m class. Four of these JS1s finished in the top ten. Now, exactly 12 years later, two-thirds of all entries into the 18m Class were JS gliders.
It seems that most of the top 18m pilots selected the JS3 and clearly, they understand how to operate these machines! An astonishing 12 JS3s finished in the top 15 including the first 6 positions.
French pilot Christophe Abadie took gold with a handsome margin. The strong Italian team, Riccardo Brigliadori and Davide Schiavotto, respectively took silver and bronze.
Competition at this level is intense. The smallest mistake can cause you to move down multiple positions, and recovering is nearly impossible. There is just absolutely no room for error. Congratulations to the podium winners for keeping up to the pace and performing with such incredible skill.
We are also incredibly proud of our very own Jonker Brothers, Attie and Uys Jonker, who as serious pen-pushers with very limited training time performed extremely well.
Uys and Attie could not even fly their own gliders due to unforeseen harbour strikes which eventually caused their gliders to only arrive a few days after the competition had already started. However, the brothers didn’t allow the situation to get them down and quickly, with the help of friends, organised the rental of two other JS3s.
Out of the eleven competition days Uys had four podium finishes and finished overall in 5th place. Attie, not far behind, finished overall in 12th place. And of course, they went out with all guns blazing by finishing the last competition day in 1st and 2nd place.
Many congratulations to the podium winners of the open class and 20m class!
The Open Class was dominated by the EB29Rs with German pilot Felipe Levin and South African duo Oscar Gaudriaan and Riaan Denner respectively taking gold and silver. Radek Krejcirik from the Czech Republic secured a bronze medal in a JS1C, showing how competitive these machines still are.
The Krejcirik family really made gliding history with dad Petr taking a gold medal in the 20m Class with partner Ivan Novak. Team Jakub Barszcz and Lukas Kornacki from Poland took silver, and team Steve Jones and Garry Coppin from the UK took Bronze.
But it was not all about gliding. JS once again provided technical support and assistance wherever needed. As a result, many new friends were made and Attie and Uys were awarded the Airmanship Trophy for FAIR PLAY.
The South African Team with captain Jason Adriaan made history by finishing second overall – the best-ever performance to date! Congratulations to the French team for taking the gold and the Italian team for the bronze.
JS would like to take their hats off to the team of volunteers, led by competition director Andras Gyöngyösi, who did an absolutely marvelous job. Most pilots regard this World Gliding Championship as the best they have ever participated in! Well done!
Thank you once again to the organization and all the pilots and crews who made this such a special and memorable event.
