From 22nd July to 2nd August, Torun (Poland) became an air arena for the world’s best aerobatic glider pilots. 68 of them from 14 countries competed over Pomerania Airfield in the FAI World Glider Aerobatics Championships both in Advanced and Unlimited class.

It took a full week and a half of competition, 10 hours of aerobatics flights daily, 222 single flights to choose the best of the best. Due to the pilots’ high skills, difficult and unstable weather conditions kept us waiting for the new World Champion until the last day of competition.

Finally, the Unlimited class was won by Maciej Popieszyński from the Aeroclub of Warsaw, for whom this was a second World Champion Title. Hungarian pilot Ferenc Toth came second and the third place went to Georgy Kaminskiy from Russia.

The Advanced class was won by Romain Vienne from France. Polish female pilot  Katarzyna Żmudzińska, came second, beating many men. Third place went to Sławomir Talowski, also from the Polish National Team.

In team placings of the Unlimited class, the gold medals went to the Czech National Team, silver went to Poland and bronze to Russia.

In the Advanced class, the first place was taken by the Polish National Team, second France and Germany  third.

These were very succesful Championships. All pilots landed safely. The next competitions - 18th FAI World Glider Aerobatic Championships and 6th FAI World Advanced Glider Aerobatic Championships - will take place in Zbraslavice (Czech Republic). Looking forward to see all teams there in 2015.

(Text by Lukas Firs, Aeroklub Polski)

• See all results at www.civa-results.com