National paragliding pilots succeed in international arena
By Amina Nazarli
Vlore, called Albanian Riviera on the east cost of Adriatic sea
along Ceraunian mountains, hosted Pre 9th FAI World
Paragliding Accuracy Championship this May.
A total of 115 pilots representing more than 15 countries were
taking part in the competition, and for the first time Azerbaijan
was presented by a team of three male pilots and one female
pilot.
The main idea of the competition was to show pilots’ ability to control its wing as good as to land exactly in the center or inside of the circle with 10m diameter only.
Although the national pilots could not succeed to become the winners, but their results were beyond the expectations. Even having wind condition a bit tough sometimes, all of them made their flights in all counted rounds.
That gave the national pilots tremendous experience, showed the level of their skills and enabled them to get assurance in their piloting.
The event comes as the last step just before the next year Championship to be held in this beautiful place again and, for sure, the national team will join the competition expecting to welcome 250 pilots. 2016 event was perfectly organized and supported by local authorities and the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, and 2017 Albania Open is also expected to be the great forthcoming event.
RockStone club leader, Alexey Zakobluk stresses that this
competition is recognition for Azerbaijan Paragliding, first of
all.
“Pilots from different countries knew us. We also built up very
good relationship with representatives of various countries, which
is the basis for the future development. We are a member of network
now,” he said.
Three Azerbaijan pilots also participated in jury training which was held by FAI representative during the free time. This is the first step to organize similar events in Azerbaijan, possibly next year.
Team member Natavan Mansurova said that they came to Vlore two
days in advance, what gave the national team an advantage to know
the place better in terms of flying.
“It is important to feet air environment at new place and as more
you practice as better for result,” she emphasized. “And now we
have this experience and one year to prepare ourselves for the next
competition in Albania.”
Another team member Ilqar Mammadov believes that the team will do the best to cover as many important events as possible.
“We should not concentrate on Albania only, as for instance a similar competition is ongoing in Kazakhstan these days. Unfortunately, we have missed it due to financial reasons. The sport itself is very expensive, as in addition to the valuable equipment like wing, harness, etc, We ourselves cover all our travel expenses,” he said.
Team member Jamal Kashkay, in turn, hopes that Azerbaijan can also organize such kind of event.
“This is my second competition and I truly believe, we have to
do something similar in Azerbaijan,” Kahskay noted.
Here you can watch the experience of the national team in the
competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KsdvwSHpzA
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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