Strong winds and organisational misunderstandings have hampered the first PWC of 1999 in Cordoba, Argentina. On the last day of the competition, a valid PWC round was flown, saving the competition from total-disaster status. A 39 km race took place, but only one pilot managed to battle his way through a headwind to cross the line: Austria’s Stephan Stieglair.
One in five pilots elected to fly Serial Class, and the top five in this new division were Pablo Kuniss (Arg, Vertex), Alberto Garcia (Arg, Sigma 4), Henrik Jensen (Dk, Bonanza), Simon Oliphant (GB, Bagheera) and Andrew Smith (RSA, Bagheera). The winner of the Open Class event was Stephan Stieglair (Aut, UP).
Meanwhile, World Paragliding Champion John Pendry has stated that he will fly Serial Class throughout the forthcoming European PWC season. This is in line with Britain’s decision to restrict its national competitions to serial class only machinery. Euro champion Jimmy Pacher started the Argentinian PWC aboard a Response but has now switched back to Open Class.
For more info, see our sponsored results pages, at www.pwca.org.
