Wild West at the US Paragliding Nationals 2014. Photo: 2014 US Paragliding Nationals, Chelan WA
Nick Greece won a historic US Paragliding Open on Saturday 12 July after a classic competition that saw the longest ever successful task set in a paragliding event.
Nick squeaked ahead of second-placed Josh Cohn to win the comp by a margin of only 37 points – 6,656 ahead of Josh’s 6,619. Eric Reed was in third place with 6,407 points.
The competition saw seven valid tasks with a cumulative total XC distance of 771.7km. The longest task was the record-setting fifth task on Thursday 10 July which saw a 200.5km race to goal.
That task was won by Matt Senior in just under five hours – 4:56:57. In total 36 pilots made goal, with a further 30 flying more than 100km and landing short.
Forty-four pilots were flying Sport class gliders – EN C or EN B – and in that class Russia’s Dmitri Soloviev won convincingly, some 371 points ahead of second place Dustin Pachura (USA). Kurt Niznik was in third. Top Sports class woman was Debbie Vosevich.
In the overall Women’s class Seiko Fukuoka came 19th overall and was first women, however she was flying an Open Class glider (Ozone R12) which means she scored but didn’t bag a podium place.
Top woman on a Serial Class glider was Canada’s Nicole McLearn who came in 40th overall. Meredyth Malocsay (US) was second with France’s Debbie Vosevich in third.
All the results are online at Fly XC
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