Spanish pilot Xevi Bonet Dalmau seizes initiative after second task
Of the 117 pilots who took to the skies for the day’s task of 75.58km, which included three cylindrical manoeuvres, only 31 pilots managed to achieve 100 percent goal to return to the Bir landing site. It’s was an especially brutal day for the Indian participants as none of the eight pilots managed to complete the task.
“Today’s task was tough and the conditions made it even more challenging. It was a World Cup-level task that separated the boys from the men,” said meet director, Debu Choudhury.
As a result, the combination of a tough task and demanding conditions played havoc with the leaderboard. Overnight leader, Maxime Pinot (974 points) from France finished down the order in 11th place. In his place, the day’s honours were clinched by Michael Kuffer of Switzerland and Xevi Bonet Dalmau from Spain.
Both completed the task with an identical time of 2hr: 41min:02sec. Andreas Malecki from Germany finished the day in third place with a total of 912 points.
Other big names such as Jurij Vidic and Julien Wirtz too were stung by the flying conditions. Writz completed thecompleted the task in 12th place, while Vidic ended his day further two places down in 14th.
Bonet Dalmau, improved upon his overnight third place to move to the top of the leaderboard with a neat haul of 1000 points. Bonet Dalmau finished second in the world cup in Eager. Kuffer’s, who was placed ninth overnight with 952 points, moved up the leaderboard with 996 points into second place following his sterling performance in completing the second task of this world cup.
Kuffer best performance this year was a third place finished the World Cup held at Desentis in Switzerland.
For the Indian contingent it was quite a forgettable day. Like most of the field, they failed to find adequate lift after a manoeuvre around a natural feature called the Big Face and were forced to land. Most of the pilots threw in the towel between 33-35km mark of the day’s task.
“The wind around the Big Face feature was very unpredictable and I couldn’t find any lift. Those who managed to gain altitude over there rapidly managed to complete the task. It was like a big trap,” said India’s Budh Ram.
Among the women, Yuki Sato (716 points), Petra Slivova (548 points) and Annalena Hinestroza (278 points) completed the top three. But Sato was the only women pilot who managed to complete the day’s task.
