Matthew Scutter taking off in the JS3 he flew in 15m Class.
The 39th World Gliding Championships took place at Tábor Airfield in Czechia with 117 pilots competing in 15m, Standard and Club Classes.
Racing Begins
The first two days were no fly days, leaving ten possible flying days to decide the next World Gliding Champions. After two days of rain, the first race promised strong conditions over the task area. What was expected to be a strong soaring day was unexpectedly complicated by a haze of smoke drifting in from Canadian wildfires. The smoke, which reduced visibility and weakened thermal conditions across the task area, created significant challenges for pilots. Unfortunately, as a result, the pilots flew slower than expected and some were forced to land out.
The Australian team at the opening ceremony in the host town of Tabor, Czechia.
Matthew Scutter showed his world championship credentials by winning 15m Class. He completed the 470km racing task at 100 kph.
Club Class was won by the German duo Uwe Wahlig and Stefan Langer. They crossed the line metres apart to take 1st and 2nd places. After the first race, James Nugent was only 51 points behind Uwe in the lead. There were many race days to come, and as always, it would be the most consistent pilots who stayed at the top of the table. Consistency is something that can be counted on from the two Germans.
Club Class once again featured duelling ASW20s and LS3s with a slew of each. The handicap for the ASW20 is now 1.07 to 1.08 while the LS3’s handicap is 1.06 to 1.07. At the end of the competition, LS3s made up seven of the top eleven places, while the ASW20s were relegated to 12th place and below. Was this due to the handicap changes? Perhaps not. At the end of the contest, three of the top five places were won by previous world champions – including James Nugent in an LS3.
Mass Outlanding on Day Two
The following day was cancelled due to weather. The second competition day at the World Gliding Championship turned out to be very difficult. A thick layer of smoke from the Canadian fires spread across the task area. The conditions deteriorated rapidly and caught everyone off guard. In the end, all the gliders landed out. Just one pilot in Standard Class completed the task, landing just off the airfield but within the finish ring.
Allan Barnes flew an LS8 in Standard Class.
Clear Skies
The smoke moved out of the task area for Race 3 and the conditions were better than forecast with good climbs to 5,000ft.
The following day was blue with climbs to about 4,500ft. With no clouds, everyone flew in gaggles. However, the Canadian smoke came back into the area and made it a difficult day. Matthew came 3rd, finishing the 235km racing task at 84.65 kph.
Daniel Summers flew an ASW20b in Club Class.
Fifth Competition Day
It was another blue day and short AAT tasks were set in all classes. Nearly everyone completed their tasks, and the following day was declared a rest day, after which pilots woke to another low, blue day. But when it finally got going, the climbs were strong to 4,000ft.
The Australian contribution to International Night.
Day Win for Matthew
The next day was cancelled but on 17 June, Matthew won the day and was now in 2nd place overall - 18 points behind Tom Arscott from Britain and 56 points ahead of Frenchman Max Seis in 15m Class. At this point in the contest, James was in 5th overall behind Langer, but ahead of Wahlig, 81 points behind Hugo Corbille from France in the lead. Adam had a good day, finishing 4th but midfield in 17th overall.
18 June
International Night was held that evening and a cold front passed through the area. The next day saw much cooler conditions and, post front, cumulus. Longer racing tasks of about 400km were set. Conditions were improving after a very difficult start to the competition. The day improved as it went along and some fast speeds were recorded for the first time. In Club Class, Stefan Langer came in at 128.4 kph for the fastest speed across all classes for the day. The penultimate race brought another marginal day with many land outs including Matthew in 15m, and Daniel Summers in Club Class.
Last Day 20 June
The last competition day was again in mostly blue conditions. Despite the tricky soaring conditions, nearly all the competitors got around the course.
Gaggle flying was a major feature of this comp. Photo BGA
Łukasz Grabowski from Poland won his first WGC, finishing in top position in 15m Class. In Club Class, Stefan Langer sealed his third WGC win, taking 1st place in the final race. Standard Class was won by Belgian pilot Jeroen Jennen. Jeremy Hood came home 2nd overall, putting Great Britain on all three finishing podiums at WGC Tabor with Pole Jakub Barszcz taking 3rd place.
Australian Team
David Jansen decided to withdraw for the last races. Daniel Summers, Allan Barnes and Adam Woolley finished down the table in their classes, but nevertheless flew well in difficult conditions. Matthew finished in 4th place overall with a result that, for him, was a bit disappointing, but showed once again that he is one of the top pilots in the world. James Nugent finished in 5th place in Club Class for a strong and very positive result after his 1st place at WGC Narromine in 2023.
Sean Young
Adam Woolley in his Discus 2a, Standard Class.
Adam Woolley
Last day recap
A great way to finish! As with previous days, the climbs got weaker as we got higher pre-start. I made a note to Allan Barnes that we may start below base, but it's not a disadvantage because not many were able to make it there – especially with the PEV. Lucking in with a good high start would be a bonus. Fortunately, we managed this and went through the line with 80% of the class.
While the terrain was easy, the gaggle was well behaved. When the rising ground came up to meet us, people became erratic and the gaggle split up in the chaos. I lost out by 500ft, but that's OK. It released me from the gaggle. It always frees my mind to be myself.
Allan and I had two fantastic climbs, one at the extremity of the first sector and later at the last big cloud before a slog home in the blue. We decided to come home overtime, because it was evident that the cu was faster and we had left early, allowing good climbs to the end if we needed them.
We only got separated at the end when I rolled into 4kts and Barnsey didn't, just a few hundred feet below me. It was an easy final glide home for 923 points for the day, and made a great way to finish the competition.
Adam Woolley
James Nugent
This was a hard fought but very worthwhile championship. Ultimately, I passed the Club Class championship trophy to Stefan Langer from Germany, but I'm reasonably satisfied with the title.
Fifth place overall is a fairly satisfying result considering the challenges of competing in Europe and the calibre of the competition. The result saw me between Uwe Wahlig, Germany, and Jacek Flis, Poland, two of the best and most respected Club Class pilots of the modern era.
James Nugent was defending the WGC Club Class title he won at Narromine on an LS3.
Of course, my goal for the competition was higher. Achieving that goal would have needed almost everything to go right, but unfortunately, the first fumble came as early as Day 1. Filtering through the gaggle with Dan, off a well-timed start on a nearly 500km task, I was able to push out ahead in pursuit of the very early-starting rivals.
Unicorn Cloud
With less then 60km to run in the dying early-evening conditions, pulling in underneath the rivals, who were climbing very strongly, produced absolutely nothing, as did the nearby thermal sources. Maybe 10 minutes drifted away, where even I battled with some frustration. Pilots in the gaggle some distance behind were met with a developing ‘unicorn’ cloud directly on their tracks, which ultimately powered them home, AHEAD of me.
The first week saw the team settle in to a good routine and cadence. Some challenges with the rented glider necessitated reaching for the majority of my spare stock of mylar tapes, bugwiper parts and instruments, to the extent of bringing parts out from Australia with the late-arriving crew members. (Thanks to Brenton, Leesa and Ali.)
Biggest, but also Safest
As the biggest WGC in recent memory with 117 competing pilots, concerns naturally arose about safety. These related to both gaggling and runway congestion. Despite a couple of hours (at least) of gaggle flying each day for nearly 3 weeks, I only had a couple of close encounters. The organisers (and pilots) also took a relatively stern approach to runway use, which seemed to be effective in increasing safety.
Basically, everyone seemed to be on their game for the entire competition. The outcome was that the biggest WGC in recent memory was also one of the safest. There were no significant incidents or accidents, a credit to everyone.
Data Driven
Gliding as a sport is changing and becoming ever-more data driven. Gone are the days when a dubious temperature trace and a wet finger in the air defines the day's plan. Now we have detailed weather modelling and satellite pictures, and tracking information on competitors available from two sources (FLARM + OGN) available in the cockpit (Starlink) in real-time.
Combined with the weak and low European weather, the racing here is a very 'above the shoulders' type of racing. Despite this, some of the days were among the most enjoyable racing days I have ever had.
Given that most of the competitors are national-champion level or similar, the racing is close and tight. One bad re-centre in a thermal might give your rival a 100ft advantage, which can snowball into beating you home. If you're into that type of competition, it's great fun, especially if you're winning (at least occasionally).
Competitive Risk
The final two competition days were defined by my unsuccessful efforts to take on more competitive risk in the hope of gaining points on several rivals. The overall podium was within reach, and with enough shenanigans, so was the top step. This usually looked like pushing on ahead of other competitors flying low-handicap gliders, or taking a different line to my rival whenever the choice was a 50/50.
These tactics summarised my general approach to the competition, which was to push hard ahead, most often alone or while trying to outrun gaggles, in order to heap pressure on other pilots. This was an approach that I am proud of and is probably why my final result is somewhat satisfying despite the lack of success. I won't bore you with a discussion on the new FAI Club Class handicaps, but it does put a lot of demand on the LS3/ASW20 pilots to push hard ahead. Times have changed...
It was good to see Matthew collect another championship diploma for 4th in 15m class, and I am sure that Dan, David, Adam and Allan will use their experience here to make them stronger in the future.
What ultimately cost me was a handful of factors that individually had very little effect, but when combined, resulted in falling off the pace a couple of hundred points overall.
Matthew Scutter
I started the last day 180 points off the podium in 5th place. To make it onto the final podium would require two unique miracles to coincide.
First, I needed to fly a very fast unique flight without any of the top players, which is immediately challenging because the top pilots usually start at the best time of day and form smaller fast-moving gaggles, especially on mostly blue days.
Photo Adam Woolley
Second, I also needed the top pilots – who I was not flying with – to all fly together, and have a bad day. This came close to coming true. I flew entirely by myself on a quite unique track, but started and turned slightly too late. The top pilots did have some savage low spots, with one pilot using the engine.
So I moved up to 4th place overall, my least favourite placing where I have now been too many times!
Overall, I feel as though I flew a very clean contest. I had only two real low points over the 11 days of flying. I never made a significant routing or tactical error. I had a pretty fair distribution of 'luck', but mostly used it up on a terrible low save rather than on getting a jump on my competitors at any point.
I was a little bit unlucky with the outlanding. When 75% of the class makes the same error, it's hard to ascribe it entirely to decision making. But as usual, most of the pilots who were at the top before the outlanding were the ones that figured out a way home, so it was not all luck.
A few factors hurt me significantly. I underestimated how long it would take to learn how to fly the JS3 in 15m. The Czech weather atypically favoured the Diana/Ventus rather than the JS3 – never strong enough to ballast past 55kg/sqm. I had an instrument and a bugwiper failure, and a team flying breakdown. Whether it would have added up to a medal is anyone's guess.
On the flip side, what worked well was SkySight in the planning and cockpit every day for both weather and satellite with WeGlide CoPilot running on my phone, the RES on the JS3 to give me low-stress retrieves, and our interclass-communication.
The top ten pilots in 15m Class. Matthew Scutter came 4th overall.
39th FAI World Gliding Championships
Tabor, Czechia
7 - 21 June 2025
15m Class
1 POL Łukasz Grabowski Diana 2 6,926
2 GB Tom Arscott Ventus 2a 6,916
3 FR Maximilian Seis JS-MD3 6,826
4 AUS Matthew Scutter JS3 6,691
35 AUS David Jansen Ventus 3T 2,241
Club
1 GER Stefan Langer LS 3 7,370
2 FR Alexandre Fierain LS 7 7,183
3 GB Timothy Fletcher LS 7 wl 7,166
5 AUS James Nugent LS 3 7,035
33 AUS Daniel Summers ASW 20B 5,535
Standard
1 LT Jeroen Jennen LS 8a 7,056
2 GB Jeremy Hood LS 8-18 6,545
3 POL Jakub Barszcz LS 8-18 6,535
16 AUS Adam Woolley Discus 2a 5,926
21 AUS Allan Barnes LS 8a 5,619
Team Cup
1 Poland 984.41
2 GB 886.96
2 GER 883.19
9 AUS 813.31
Full results at soaringspot.com tinyurl.com/WGC-Tabor
The top ten pilots in Club Class. Defendinf Champion, James Nugent in 5th place.
