World Pilot Rankings Update 2/5/00

Hang gliding and Class 2 rankings include Wallaby Open and Atlantic Coast Championships and no competitions deleted. Andre Wolf's (BRA) win at Wallaby helps him to take 1st place on 25i8 points, 6 points ahead of Betinho Schmitz (BRA) who drops to 2nd place. Manfred Ruhmer (AUT) is 3rd (225 points), Alan Barnes (GBR) 4th, Oelg Bondarchuk (UKR) 5th and Richard Walbec (FRA), who has only 3 competitions counting is in 6th place. Joel Rebbechi (AUS) maintains 7th place ahead of Jim Lee (USA) , with Steve Moyes (AUS) and Pedro Matos (BRA) in equal 9th place completing the current top 10 placings. Francoise Mocellin (FRA) still leads the female rankings in 42nd place overall (100 points), with Kari Castle (USA) now 2nd following her results in the Wallaby and Atlantic coast competitions. There are 415 pilots ranked. In class 2 David Sharp (USA) just maintains first place on 41 points, ahead of Brain Porter (USA) on 40 points. Several pilots have climbed up the top 10; Hansjoerg Truttmann (SUI) to 3rd place (from 5th), Davis Straub (USA) to 4th (from 6th) and Johann Posch (USA) moves to 5th from 9th. Those that have dropped a few places are Christof Kratzner (GER) now 6th (from 3rd), Johnny Carr (GBR) 7th (from 4th), Alain Chauvet (FRA) 8th (from 6th), Marcus Hoffmann (GER) 9th (from 8th) and Bernd Weber (GER) 10th (from 9th). Niki Hamilton (IRL) is the only ranked female in 21st position. There are currently 32 pilots ranked. The paragliding rankings see the addition of the South African Open National Championships, the Manilla Open, Australia and the Osttirol Open (Pre-PWC), Austria. Steve Cox (SUI) maintains first place on 214 points, only 4 points ahead of Kari Esienhut (SUI). Christian Tamegger (AUT, 3rd) and Tibor Berki (SWE, 4th) have changed places. Hans Bollinger (SUI) maintains 5th, whilst Andrew Smith (RSA) climbs to 6th (from 14th) displacing each of the following one place Jimmy Pacher (ITA, 7th), Michal Orolin (SVK, 8th), Martin Brunn (AUT, 9th) and Matt Taggart (GBR, 10th). Petra Krausova (CZE) still leads the female rankings in 32nd place overall, with Andrea Joubert (RSA) 2nd and Noriko Mizunuma (JPN) 3rd. There are currently 542 pilots ranked. Paragliding nation rankings (top 15); 1 Switzerland 2 Austria 3 Japan 4 Germany 5 South Africa 6 Czech republic 7 Great Britain 8 France 9 Italy 10 Slovakia 11 Sweden 12 USA 13 Spain 14 Brasil 15 Norway Pilots should check that their personal record shows the correct nationality, particularly as there are a few pilots of unknown nationality. All amendments should be e-mailed to Sarah Fenwick (civl@ukonline.co.uk). Full rankings can be found on the FAI/CIVL website at http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/rankings/ or the British League website: www.theleague.force9.co.uk where they are available in positional and alphabetical order and the database files are available for downloading in Excel 97 format. Forthcoming hang gliding competitions (class 1 unless otherwise indicated) that qualify for WPRS points are: Category 1: Female World Championships, Greece; European Championships, Austria (class 1 & 2); world Speed gliding Championships, Greece. Category 2: Japanese nationals; Spanish Open; Pre-World Air Games; German Open (class 1 & 2); British HG Open, France (class 1 & 2); Dutch HG Championships, Italy (class 1 & 2). Forthcoming paragliding competitions that qualify for WPRS points are: Category 1: European Championships, Germany. Category 2: PWC's - Granada, Portugal, Mieussy and Chamonix; Pre-PWC's - Greece, Austria, France; Slovenian Open; German Open; Nordic Open, France; Aeolia Open, Greece. Accuracy (precision events): Category 1: World Accuracy Championships, UK Category 2: Slovenian Championships Details of these competitions can be found on the CIVL web page: http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/competitions/comp_schedule.asp Any queries/questions regarding the World Pilot Ranking Scheme should be sent to Sarah Fenwick, e-mail civl@ukonline.co.uk, tel/fax +44 1983 523003 Information and an application form for CIVL category 2 sanctioning are available on the CIVL website http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/ or from Sarah Fenwick.