Friday July 6, 2001
    The morning fog indicates a high level of humidity and it looks like the too dense cloudiness of yesterday will be with us again today.



    Further, after the clearing of the morning fog it is shown that the fast forming high clouds are relatively rapidly carried on a west wind and at the thought of a battle with strong wind, the favorites have a double-sized breakfast, along with, of course, their grains.



    Fear of afternoon storms shortens the morning briefing in the camp to a minimum and the racers dash up the mountain. This time the goal is the starting ground called Tirsek, which lies northwest of the camp at an altitude of not quite 1,000 meters above sea level. At the briefing a 33 km long discipline is announced with a total of five turning points and a goal by the village of Varpolje near the camp. Worries of the rapid thickening of cloud cover and possible storms force the organizers to open the start window already at 12:30 p.m. and shorten its duration to a mere hour.



    No one wants to go up into the air for quite a while, the starting ground and its environs are well shaded by fast forming clouds. Only just before 1 p.m. does Michal Orolin go up, immediately followed by Ondra Dupal.

    After a while several other favorites join them, but even though all fight for every meter of altitude, in the end this period doesn't prove to have been the wisest choice. Gradually they peter out at the first turning point, which lies at a mere distance of 2.5 km from the start. Besides Michal Orolin and Ondra Dupal, even other aces like Frantisek Pavlousek, Petra Krausova, Milan Michna, Tomas Lednik, Dusan Kultan and Peter Mensak also peter out.



    Pilots starting at a later interval fare a little better and are able to climb the deciding altitude to another jump over, even if some rise from the valley from relatively poor altitudes.



    Later starts are complicated though by a very weak wind of changing directions, often even from the back. And while relative beginners start relatively well, the old wolf Milan Kamenicek tries, unsuccessfully, during his wild start, to take along a tree and finally comes to a definite stop against the pole of a windsleeve.



    In today's conditions the very difficult first turning point means a premature landing for almost for almost 50 pilots. But not even the rest do too much better. It's difficult to do longer jump overs in terrains with the highest peaks at almost 1,600 meters, when bases of the thick cloud cove lie at an altitude of a mere 1,450 meters. The second turning point at the 12th kilometer is turned by only 9 pilots, but even they gradually land on the way to turning point number three. The longest glide is demonstrated by Tomas Brauner and together with Kamil Solc and a Slovenian racer Jurij Vidic, they land between the 15th and 16th kilometers of the course.

    Hanka Matyaskova does very well today, as she lacked only 200 meters to reach turning point number 2, and wound up today with a gain of 340 points and 10th place in the overall placing of the race. But pilot of the day became Karel Vrbensky, who at the evening party not only graciously took to frying a pile of steaks and chicken on a huge pan, but even gave friendly samples to others as well.