13th Paragliding World Cup Super Final (2023 Season) Baixo Guandu, Brazil : March 5th – 16th 2024 : Task 5
- Mar 14 2024
Yesterday pilots took off with hopes of completing a 70k task, but with thick cloud cover and a low cloudbase, pilots struggled to stay up before the start. Many pilots opted to wait on launch for better conditions. Right before the start it began raining on pilots, so the task was stopped.
Today, pilots arrived on launch to find sunny conditions and a good wind for launching.
A 75.6k task was called with the start about 5k in front of launch, which is past the valley about where the rolling hills start. After that the task continued to a turnpoint to the NE, then a very long leg across to a turnpoint well past the crater on the other side of the river. These long legs force pilots to pick their line. Follow the high terrain? Take the direct line across the flat crater? Follow the clouds?
After tagging the 2nd turnpoint, the task went back across the river to the south for another long leg. The winner, Manuel Quintanilla got low in both the long legs, but ended up pushing hard low and taking an aggressive line that gave him the win.
110 pilots made goal, and the fact that the top 71 pilots were within about 2 minutes of each other speaks to the tight, fast race at the end. A great day of racing that is more in line with what pilots expect from Baixo Guandu.
Track the daily action here: livetracking https://pwca.events/pwca-livetracking/
Get results here: https://pwca.events/13th-world-cup-superfinal/#sfresults
Check out the photo gallery here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gs2FFxadKyPxWJrh6
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The overall winners are:
- Manuel Quintanilla
- Honorin Hamard
- Luc Armant
The top 3 women are:
- Alexia Fischer
- Galen Kirkpatrick
- Meryl Delferriere
The top 3 teams are:
- Ozone
- Cross Country Magazine
- Niviuk 2
Photo by Anna Berger