16/8 – Competition Day 11

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!