Mark Janaway: Junior World record on Epic 2
30-04-2024
#Achievements
Congratulations to 15-year-old Mark Janaway of Slovenia / GB, whose 109km flight from Sorica, Slovenia on 13 April earned him the 100km out-and-return Junior World and European record.
Mark's solo flying career started just eleven months before the record flight, in May 2023, although he had flown tandem with his father from the age of five, and ground-handled since he was two! Mark said, "Flying has been in my family for many generations. My grandfather flew hang gliders in the 1980s and later moved on to paragliding. My dad has been flying paragliders since the early 1990s. It was just a natural progression for me to take up the sport."
The record flight came about sort of by accident, without much preparation. "After a nice XC flight my father and I came up with the idea of trying to break the speed record in the Junior category as the weather at our home site looked great the next day. His focus was more as a training exercise for flying faster, making more decisions and helping to understand the myriad of paperwork the sport sometimes present. The record was really a byproduct of those aims".
Success in the first attempt at a record, in his first year of flying ... we think we will be seeing a lot more from Mark in the coming months and years. Congratulations to him, and we are excited to see what follows!
View the flight on XCGlobe
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Mark's solo flying career started just eleven months before the record flight, in May 2023, although he had flown tandem with his father from the age of five, and ground-handled since he was two! Mark said, "Flying has been in my family for many generations. My grandfather flew hang gliders in the 1980s and later moved on to paragliding. My dad has been flying paragliders since the early 1990s. It was just a natural progression for me to take up the sport."
The record flight came about sort of by accident, without much preparation. "After a nice XC flight my father and I came up with the idea of trying to break the speed record in the Junior category as the weather at our home site looked great the next day. His focus was more as a training exercise for flying faster, making more decisions and helping to understand the myriad of paperwork the sport sometimes present. The record was really a byproduct of those aims".
Success in the first attempt at a record, in his first year of flying ... we think we will be seeing a lot more from Mark in the coming months and years. Congratulations to him, and we are excited to see what follows!