Saturday, June 15
    "A pack of idiots ahead, move or I'll throw up on you ..." sings the known, but here un-named duo of Czech pilots as the loaded car winds its way up the serpentine roads to the first briefing at the local stadium, in the town of Tolmin. I can no longer imaging the competition for Champion of the Czech Republic in Paragliding as taking place anywhere other than Slovenia. In contrast to last year, however, Camping Menina beneath the crest of Golte has been exchanged for the inexpensive Auto camp Johnson in the village of Gabrje, near Tolmin with outhouses and a washroom in the cold Soča River. This year's Championship of the Czech Republic is taking place concurrently with the opening of the Championship of Slovenia.



    "Well, somehow that particular anthem didn't enchant me", someone comments shortly after the kick off of the championship and immediately after all 133 registered pilots are loaded onto military trucks which climb up towards the Kobala starting ground, located at an altitude of 1080 meters above sea level, with surprising speed. In a sharp left turn in the final stretch of a crest, one of the trucks gets stuck, tilted onto two wheels, facing downward off the slope, towards the forest as everyone, in a panic jumps wildly off the bed, but otherwise the mood stays excellent. Around noon everyone is happily up and there are so many people that even the local livestock voluntarily clears off.



    Cholera ...!" some Pole sputters upon stepping into a fresh cow patty, big as a pizza Napolitana and leaves to hear the dual-language report of the organizers on the meteorological situation.

    At the briefing, a 69km long discipline is announced with a total of four turning points, and the goal line is prepared at the stadium in the city of Tolmin. The fact that GPS instruments with a record of the route flown are turned in right there, is all the more incentive to make it.

    The start window is only one hour long today and opens at 13:00. In the hot and very humid atmosphere, a thick mist can be seen and the first clouds begin to condense rapidly above the start. Fifteen minutes following the opening of the start window the air is thick with racers and the first ones, having finished turning the bases at an altitude of a mere 1400 meters above sea level, head off on the route.




    Thanks to the damp air and the excessive cloudiness above the crests on all sections of the route advance rapidly, until after not quite three hours from the time of opening of the start window the first racers land at the stadium in Tolmin.




    Gradually, around 41 pilots fly in to the goal of today's discipline, and, duet to the ever-changing direction of the thermal streaming, they perform strange summersaults when landing. Because the time is measured individually for each of the racers, it turns out that the German racer, Norman Lausch, is the fastest and Slovenian pilot Jurij Vidic is second, and again Slovenian Roman Lotrič comes in third. Of the Czechs, Ondřej Holub, does the best and establishes himself at 5^th place in the overall placing.