Paragliders racing in to beat the weather in La Palma. Photo: Desafio De La Palma
Spain’s Xevi Bonet won the La Palma Challenge Pre-PWC and Open, which finished on 3 December after three valid tasks. He was flying a Gin Boomerang 6.
Norway’s Anders Berheim was second on board an Ozone Mantra R09, and France’s Jean Marc Malhonda third on his Axis Mercury. Top woman was Switzerland’s Regula Strasser flying a Niviuk Icepeak.
Poor weather meant only one task was flown to completion. The other two were stopped.
Flying in La Palma takes advantage of the island’s lee-side zone of flyable air. This means tasks are usually short and sharp circuits – pilots fly as many times as they can around a pre-determined short XC course in a given time.
This year the first task had good conditions, and was won by Jean Marc Malhonda who covered 50 km in the allotted time. He scored 1,000 points, the only 1,000-point day of the competition.
Task 2 was won by Xevi Bonet, but he only scored 550 points as the task was stopped an hour into the two-and-a-half-hour race.
Task 3 was stopped by rain after 45 minutes, leading to similarly low scores. It was won by Xevi Bonet.
The La Palma Challenge offers one of the biggest prize pots in paragliding. A total of €6,000 is divided up – €1,000 for the winning pilot and smaller cash prizes for those in the first nine and the top three in Serial, Sport and Women’s classes.
