Friday 2000-7-7
    Friday mornign showed itself in the best light. A clear blue sky and virtually windless. Furthermore, already before 8 a.m. four paragliders took off from the high face north of camp and within half an hour landed at camp. So everyone had a good breakfast in expectation of a demanding discipline and strong thermic conditions on the course.



    "Ladies and Gentleman", I have great news for you. Today we race again!", announced Karel Janku, competition director at 8:30. In light of the northward moving edge of the front and the uncertain development of the meteorological situation, the briefing up at Kriska Gora was set already for 11:30. "Well that I certainly can't make", immediately announced Radek Simonik and hurried off to pack seveal cans of beer for the strenuous climb.




    Today all the large vehicles that were available at camp were used to transport pilot's bags and by 10:00 most competitors were waiting by the lower station of the cable car to Gozda. "Today is the last time I'm climbing up here", announced Radek Simonik before starting the climb and looked as if he truly meant it.




    At the briefing at 11:30 a 46 km long discipline with three turning points and only one marker was announced, which opened today at 14:00. The goal this time around was not the usual landing strip below the runway, but a meadow by the village of Cerkleje below the runway, Krvavec.



    The Start window opened at 12:15, but somewhow no one wanted to go up in the air. There were no clouds forming over the crests and there was a threat of a quick dying out under thehill. That this was a real danger was demonstrated by Petr Dvorak who started 8 minutes after the opening of the window and several minutes later was heavily petering out on the east side of the runway. In the end he finally made at least the 6th kilometer of the route. The same was demonstrated 15 minutes later by Martin Chvojka and ten minutes following that by Radek Simonik, with the difference that Radek landed at a distance of half a kilometer shorter than the two before him.

    "Believe me that today there will be a big temperature gradient. I don't want to be rude, but it'll be a big wanker", one Slovak favorite accurately evaluated the meteorological situation following more waiting, and everyone on the runway assumed waiting stance. After that Michal Orolin said nothing and calmly followed the cloud development.



    The start wave came at 13:10, that is a mere 20 minutes before the closing of the Start window, when really nothing remained for the 60-odd racers but to crush into the air at a rate of 3 racers a minute. After 10 minutes the hillside east of the runway was quite densely packed.

    The southwest wind and very turbulent thermics made for hard times for all pilots on course, and at 14:00, at the moment of opening of the marker, not one pilot was near it.



    The vanguard of the race field hurled back from the first turing point above the marker at the lower station of the frieght cable car at 14:25 and after a successful photographing of the bright orange arrow, quickly returned to the steep hillside. Then in the turbulent thermics they persistently tried to climb above the crest again.



    Not all were, however, able to photgraph the marker. Some had landed already by the first turning point, others flew to the marker by the lower station of the cable car, but had only enought height to land at the lower landing strip beneath Gozda. Tomas Mrkvicka came out the best int he fight with the turbulent thermics and hi point gain for the victory immediately put himup to 16th place. Arriving second at the goal was the improving Peter Mensak and he moved to Third place in the overall placing. His point lead hinted that he would most likely become the champion in the Slovak placing of the race. Ivo Videnka came in third, and because neither Mirek "Radar" Stehula toether with Mirek Varvarovsky weren't missing at the goal they strengthened their positions at the first two places inthe overall placing.



    Hopelessly however id we today look out for Frantisek Pavlousek at the goal, who surely had intended to fix his sishevelled reputation from yesterday. He landed howver 10 km fromt he goal, resulting in a drop of one position to 7th place. But even so 7 is evidently a luck number. A total of 26 racers flew to the goal today 2000-7-7 and the results were evealuated by the sleepy Robert Sebek late into the night.



    "I hope there's no flying tomorrow. I don't like it here anymore!", procleaimed the sorrowful Milan Michna, who in these final days was expected to make a strong rush for first place, after returning to the camp at Lesce airfield from the course, and who today unfortunately didn't manage even to photograph the marker. Back at the camp on the airfield competition director Karel Janku proactively had prepared a bag of sauerkraut for him to "fix his taste". Following today's bad luck, Milan fell to 10th place in the overall scoring and in the Czech placing all that was left for him was 6th place. Almost 150 points ahead of him were Tonda Pallas and Jarda Grulich, who toay uncompromisingly reached the goal.

    And because the forecast for tomorrow, the last day of competition, isn't at all good, it's entirely possible that nothing will change. In that case tomorrow the results would be announced and the winners rewarded. Well, we'll see.