The winners of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale after 10 days of competition which concluded in Forbes on Thursday are Manfred Ruhmer from Austria and Corinna Schweigershausen from Germany.
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The Forbes Sports and Recreation Club, which has played host to the hang glider pilots and their support crews since the beginning of the year, was packed for the presentation of individual and team prizes.
It has been many years since Forbes has hosted a world event of such magnitude where the best were toasted.
In accepting his fourth world crown Ruhmer said this year’s championships had been ‘really good’.
“I thank you for letting me win, it was great,” he said as he stood on the winner’s dais with Alessandro Ploner (Italy) who finished second and Filippo Oppici, also from Italy, third.
Piror to Thursday’s final round the competition ‘tightened’ with Ploner, the current world champion until yesterday, bridging the gap on Ruhmer who led after the second stage of the competition.
On Thursday Ruhmer showed his class to hold off all challenges to win with a total score of win with 9010 from Ploner 8871 and Oppici 8560.
Best of the Australian pilots in the open class was Scott Barrett with 8131 points.
Schweigershausen showed all class to dominate the ladies class finishing with 5930 points from Kathleen Rigg of Great Britain second on 4414 with Australia’s Tove Heaney third on 3849 points.
In the teams section Italy were winners with 23,879 points from USA 23,477 points while third went to Australia on 22,627 points.
While all international pilots indicated their feelings of a highly successful competition, Lucas Bader from Germany, keeps returning each year to fly in Forbes.
“I’ve been coming here for the last 15 years, I’ve got to know everyone here, it’s great,” Bader said.
One of the leading pilots, Bader showed skill to win Wednesday’s leg of the championships which took in a flight to Peak Hill, Fifeld, Ootha, Bogan Gate to finish back in Forbes.
“This the second best world titles in the world,” Bader said.
“The best I’ve been to was here in Forbes in 1998 when we flew 12 out of the 14 days.
“This year we completed 10 out of 11 tasks, and that’s good,” Bader said.
At yesterday’s presentation pilots and their support were all full of praise for the efforts of organisers and sponsorship, and hospitality shown by the Sports and Recreation Club and its staff.
During the championships there were 1500 ‘no crash’ launches and landings where the only concern was a pilot had a brief visit to hospital after a heavy landing.
The Forbes airport saw an average of 110 pilots take to the air each day with 11 tug planes in operation.
