Yang Chen wins World Paragliding Accuracy Championships 2023

BGD Team Pilot Yang Chen has won the 12th FAI World Paragliding Accuracy Championships in Sopot, Bulgaria, flying an Adam.

The competition, running from 21st to 26th October, saw 129 starting pilots from 31 countries competing over 12 rounds. For the first time, new knockout rules meant that after 6 rounds, only the top 60 pilots continued into the 7th & 8th rounds, only 40 pilots into the 9th & 10th rounds, and the last two rounds comprised just 20 pilots. This led to an incredibly exciting and fast-paced finish, with the last four rounds being completed in one day. This is the first time 12 rounds have been completed since 2007, hence the reason for this rule change.

Yang Chen led all the way, hitting 4 dead centres with a score of 5cm by round 9, when a harness touch in Round 10 gave him a maximum score of 200cm. This became his dropped score in the competition but left no room for error in the final two rounds. He then scored 1cm and 3 cm, with a total score of 14cm, winning by 21cm. This win adds to his successes this season in the Paragliding Accuracy World Cup, the Bulgarian Open in Pernick, and the pre-European event in Gjirokaster, Albania.

He remains the World number 1 ranked accuracy pilot.

Results
Overall
1. Yang Chen, China, BGD Adam
2. Linus Schubert, Germany
3. Aris Afriansyah, Indonesia

Ladies
1. Eunyoung Cho, Korea
2. Catherine Devos, France
3. Donghwa Yang, Korea

Junior
1. Linus Schubert, Germany
2. Rafael Carvallo, Chile
3. Lennard Schubert, Germany

Teams
1. Indonesia
2. Czech Republic
3. South Korea

Report by Sue Britnell.