EGC 2024

Dear competitors, team captains, crew members, families, friends, staff and honoured guests,

We had the great pleasure of hosting you here in Tábor for the last 3 weeks. In that time, we have managed to have 11 valid championships days, make over 1300 launches and cover a total distance of over 365 thousand kilometres, circumventing the Earth more than 9 times and covering more than 95% of the distance between the Earth and the Moon. But more importantly, we have managed to host a fair competition which has determined the next European gliding champions.

Hosting the championships is a strenuous task, which is best rewarded by the smiles on your faces and the enjoyment of we hear about from you. Thank you to everyone who has shared their enjoyment with us.

Congratulations to all the new European Champions:

• Jacek Flis (POL) in Club Class
• Robin Sittmann (GER) in Standard Class
• Lukasz Grabowski (POL) in 15m Class

And big congratulations to the whole Polish team for being first among all the other nations!

Additionally, we would like to invite you all to the World Gliding Championships that will be taking place here in Tábor in less than 10 months from now. Please share your experience from this year with others and watch out for information that we will start sending out soon, as we would like to welcome as many of you as possible next year.

So, thank you all once again for a wonderful championships, and see you next year.

The last competition day is over and all our pilots are safely on ground. The Czech weather decided to give a nice goodbye to all the competitors with wonderful gliding conditions. All the classes flew an AAT task into very similar areas with the 15m class having 3:15h, the standard class 3:00h, and club class 3:30h. The cloudbases were at 1200 m AGL already during take-offs and gradually got higher, with the thermals getting stronger up to 4 m/s.

These exciting conditions are very evident from the daily winners’ speeds as the winner in 15m class, Filip Bojanowski (DEN), reached 131 kph. In standard class won Jeroen Jennen (BEL) with almost 127 kph, and in club class dominated Hugo Corbille (FRA) with nearly 111 kph. Congratulations guys! The overall results cannot yet be discussed as today’s results are still unofficial, but they are crystallising slowly…

In the meantime, let’s say an enormous thank you to the organisation team here in Tábor. Huge thanks to all the young, always helpful, and cheerful, staff members, who took care of all grid procedures each day. Thanks to the tow pilots, who stayed very concentrated and caring throughout the whole competition. Thanks to the local club members, who organised all the background operations and enabled the competition to run smoothly and seamlessly. A big thanks goes also to the FAI representatives, who were always around to keep an eye on everything and provide a helping hand in any troubles. Consequently, a tremendous job was also done by the ones often unseen, like the deputy director and starter Tomas Rendla, the brilliant scorer Hynek Chovan, and the funniest meteorologist on planet Jan Horák. Thanks guys for your never-ending effort. And the biggest thanks goes to the competition director, Matej Rendla, for his professional, yet attentive and helpful attitude, and for all his time devoted to the championship during the past three weeks, but also much longer before.

All of these people (and many more), were completely essential for the EGC 2024, so let’s not take their work and effort for granted. It was our pleasure to have you all here, and we hope you will bring home just the best memories from Tábor and the 22nd European Gliding Championship!

Yesterday, our pilots successfully completed another racing task, that was up to 407 km long. The weather improved compared to the previous days, so sniffer was not even necessary, and all the pilots took off into a sky full of cumuli. In 15m class and in club class it proved to be beneficial to leave in an earlier interval, and use the full day, as the weather turned into blue at several sections of the task, and the pilots had to deviate a lot. In standard class, majority of the pilots started the task after 14:10 and even though as a group they flew fast, they had to optimise with 0.5 m thermals on the final glide.

Overall, in club class the winner was Roelof Corporaal (NED) with 97 kph, in standard class Robin Sittmann (GER) with 90 kph, and the winner in 15 m class, Marius Pluscauskas (LTU) reached the speed of 111 kph. Congratulations to you all!

Today, the weather is promising for another exciting task, so we do hope our pilots stay safe even on the last competition day, and simply enjoy their final flight at the EGC.

Our Competition Day 9 was full of surprises for the competitors. All the classes flew an AAT task with standard class having 2:30, 15m class 2:45, and club class flying 3 hours. The day started with blue thermals with ceilings at 1000m AGL after release, but during the launches the conditions improved gradually and some of the pilots got so lucky, that they managed to find a wave and climbed over 2700 m AMSL. Fortunately, for the ones who did not find the wave there was a pre-start altitude limit of 1800 m AMSL to decrease the possible effect of this luck.

During the task most of the pilots headed south, and found a convergence line along the Šumava mountains, but getting back was the key to success as many pilots arrived before the minimum time, and had to use very weak climbs to just touch the last areas and arrive home safely.

Congratulations to the daily winners; to Uwe Whaling (GER) for having by far the highest speed in 15m class at 122 kph, and to Julien Duboc (FRA) and Josef Kozar (SVK) for choosing the perfect path and interval!

It was a tough day, so we hope today will be more rewarding for the less unfortunate ones yesterday, and we already look forward to your success on another racing task.

Thank you the WGC organisers in Uvalde for sending us here a taster of your weather. Even though the weather did not seem so at the start of the day, when the sniffer team had spent almost 2 hours searching for the first thermals in blue (and had to use the engine twice), the weather Gods have suddenly switched the thermals on in Tábor too, and at 12:45 first cumuli started appearing and so did the starts start too.

Today the competitors flew 3 hour AAT task in club class, 2:45 in 15m class, and 2:30 AAT in standard class whilst reaching incredible speeds of almost 143 kph. In standard class we had the fastest pilot today, Aude Untersee (FRA). Aude is also the only female pilot in the class, so we are very proud of her proving that women can be just as capable pilots (or even more) than men! In 15m class Filip Bojanowski (DEN) won with 142 kph, and in club class again Jacek Flis (POL) with 125.5 kph.

We are very glad everyone was rewarded with these amazing conditions and could enjoy also a non-blue flying day. Tonight, we have the international evening, so everyone is already in full preparation mode to represent their country well, and we cannot wait to taste all the delicious plates from around the world.

Yesterday, the second week of our championship started with yet another racing task. Horác is keeping us optimistic and all the classes flew over 200 kilometers in completely blue conditions. Luckily, their time up there was not a complete survival game in the extreme heat as some were fortunate enough to climb up to 1300 m AGL. Nevertheless, we are still nervous for the pilots as it was another exhausting task, the temperatures are not supposed to drop below 30 degrees, and it is getting more and more difficult to concentrate, so please remember that safety is and always will be first.

The winner in club class Tomáš Suchánek (CZE) reached the xc speed of nearly 87 kph. In standard class Norbert Scarlat (ROM) won with 93 kph and in 15m class was Riccardo Brigliadori (ITA) the winner with 91.57 kph.

Congratulations to you all and keep up the good work! The final results are slowly forming, but anything can still happen, so keep fighting.

The Competition Day 6 is over and we are all grateful to our weatherman again as his predictions bring optimism into our otherwise negative forecasts from other models. All the classes flew over 300 km racing tasks with blue or 1/8 cumuli conditions, sometimes with cloud bases up to 1600 m AGL and 3 m/s thermals.

Nevertheless, each class had a very different experience of the day. The 15m class flew to the SE and then NE. The standard class had the task first towards NE of Tábor and then SE, and finally club class flew all the way to the borders of Czechia and Austria then up north and home.

Our two daily winners are current junior representatives of their countries in club class and standard class, so congratulations Kim Toppari (FIN) and Henry Inigo-Jones (GBR) for showing the world that gliding skills and success are not necessarily dependant on age. In 15 m class the official winner was Stephan Grunder (NED), but with 1001 pts. the HC Henrique Navarro (BRA) was the fastest pilot of the day.

Today the pilots are already on task with completely blue conditions and high temperatures, so let’s hope they at least get high enough to cool down a little bit ☁️

What a treat did all the pilots get today after the fight yesterday! The weather turned out even bit better than expected; high ceilings, good strong thermals, and especially some nice cloudstreets. We hope that everyone enjoyed the racing tasks, with 15m class flying 333 km, standard class 340 km, and club class 340 km too.

In club class Jack Fils (POL) is the daily winner with 99 kph. In standard class the podium is dominated by the Czech team (with the youngest competitor at the whole EGC being first), congratulations Lukáš Kříž to your excellent results and 122 kph! And finally in the 15m class the Lithuanian and Danish team did great, with the winner Marius Pluscauskas (LTU) and his incredible 133.94 kph!

The weather should be still good tomorrow, so rest well and prepare for some incoming heat too.

After a peaceful official rest day on Thursday, the competitors were given a very optimistic racing task yesterday. The day started with a heavy fog that lasted until half past eight, therefore, everyone was gridding IFR. Two tasks were prepared for all classes, but just the club class flew the original task A which was 391 km. The standard class and 15m class flew the task B, which was for both 335 km with the second leg along the Šumava mountains, which brought difficult times for some, but some very exciting moments for others.

Nevertheless, the biggest skills test appeared at the very end of the task, when the cloud cover coming from west came sooner than expected and weakened the conditions on the final 50 km home. The lucky and patient ones were able to find some weak lift and with headwind reached Tábor, but the majority of pilots either did an engine test, or a practical examination of Czech agriculture… Fortunately, no serious damage (that we would know about) occurred during the outlandings, and some were even fortunate enough to get a tow back home!

Congratulations to Stephan Grunder (NED) in 15m class, Maros Divok (SVK) in standard class, and Mikolaj Zdun (POL) in club class for winning the day. We hope that you celebrated well this tough day, because you all deserved the Czech party for you effort!

PS: Check out or YouTube channel too for daily videos!

Our third Competition Day is over with a shared 3h AAT task for all classes. Our weatherman was very successful in his forecast and so no significant storms influenced the task, and the approaching cold front turned the originally blue day into a pretty unstable gliding weather with thermals up to 4 m/s and best pilots flying up to 370 km.

The winner in club class Tapio Tourula (FIN) had the xc speed of 106 kph. Our junior in standard class Maciej Kowalski (POL) won the day with 118 kph and the 15m class winner Vlado Foltin (SVK) was just a bit faster than Maciej and almost reached 119 kph today.

Congratulations everyone and fly safe!