Janes Nugent, Australia, landing after winning Race 7 in ClubClass.
CLUB CLASS
Today, the conditions promised to be as good as for Race 6 and Club Class were happy to be sent southwest instead of north into the blue. However, the conditions proved to be more challenging than expected.
All classes were set AAT tasks. In Club Class James Nugent won his third day in the championship. He flew 429.7 km at a speed of 110.26 kph, only 4 kph slower than the day before. James is now firmly in the lead of Club Class as well as the overall race, 61 points ahead of Uwe Wahlig who took 3rd place on the day, keeping him in 2nd place overall. Uwe is the current World Champion in 15m and is well motivated to try and catch James over the coming days.
Tomas Suchanek from Czech Republic came 2nd on the day, moving him up three places to be in 7th position overall.
Yves Gerster, Switzerland landing to win the day in 15m Class.
15m Class
Yves Gerster, Switzerland had his first day win flying 505.84 km at a speed of 117.59 kph, well down on the over 151 kph flown by Race 6 Winner Adam Woolley. Today, Adam had to be content with 2nd place, gaining 967 competition points. Adam is now up one place to 5th overall, 108 points behind Ays Jonker who took 3rd place on the day.
Uys is 79 points ahead of the next pilot Henrik Bieler, Germany. Current World 15m Champion and previously top of the table, Sebastian Kawa did not have the best day. In an interview, he said that he and his team mate Lukasz Grabowski made a mistake at the start and were unable to catch the leaders. Kawa has now dropped two places to 4th overall. He is 96 points behing Jonker.
STANDARD CLASS
The Polish team Tomasz Rubaj and Lukasz Blaszczyk took 1st and 2nd place with Rubaj flying 447.85km at 113.68 kph. In 3rd place was Tom Arscott, Great Britain cementing his position at the top of the Standard Class table. He is 253 points ahead of Lukasz Blaszczyk in 2nd place and 352 points ahead of Sjaak Selen, Netherlands in 3rd place overall. Tom must be feeling confidence in his position and having visions of a Gold medal finish.
However, today Monday 11 December has been declared a no fly day citing the ongoing heatwave and uncertain soaring window. There are still a potential four more racing days to come and mixed weather, and the results are far from certain in this exciting World Gliding Championships.
Sean Young
Full results at soaringspot.com/