Here’s a wrap up of the 2023 competition! Over the season the really bad thing weather-wise was the succession of moist N or NE flows hitting the North Island, all too often severely limiting the opportunities for cross-country paragliding north of Cook Strait. Was it a strong La Nina weather influence or just general ‘climate change’? A good thing weather-wise was being able to get away from the worst of that weather at the other end of the country in Central Otago, and then even better was having favourable paragliding conditions coincide with the largest tasked competition of the summer: the PG Nationals (Jan 9-14).
From the Otago flying, it became the season of most 100 km FAI triangles ever! XC Champs entrants seemed to have gotten smarter and were planning their flights better; to attempt, and then often achieve, a nice even-sided triangle for better scoring. 11 of the top 12 ranked pilots flew 100+ km FAI triangle course flights, thereby earning more than 200 points each. The first flights scoring over 200 points were flown on Oct 4 (four FAI triangles), the last ones flown on Feb 12 (three FAI triangles). Included in the group flying 100+ km FAI triangles were the top women competitors, who were also pretty ‘top’ overall, with four of the top 12 ranked pilots overall being women!
Here are some season highlights:
Outside of the XC Champs, Slovakian pilot Juraj Koren had two epic vol biv trips, first from Coronet Peak, Otago to Marlborough (Jan 10 to Jan 19); and then from Barnicoat, Nelson to Lake Pukaki, Canterbury (Jan 21 to Jan 29). It included a first day flight of 206 km open distance from Coronet, and a site best flight of 87 km from Lewis Tops, Canterbury. (However, from track log detail, Koren had no flights over 100 km eligible for a site record or NZ PG XC Champs entry).
* 1st place and 2023 NZ XC Champion Pilot: Ben Kellett After two years as the runner up, this season Ben made sure of the XC Champs title with three high scoring triangles, including a 10 hour, 197 km flight from Coronet Peak, which matched the distance of the NZ National FAI Triangle record. Ben’s total score of 976 points is the highest yet achieved under the NZ XContest Champs scoring regime. Ben also topped the open distance table, and shared the season’s best open distance with Leo Chelle (192 km, Coronet Peak).
* 1st Runner Up Pilot: Thomas Rold 100 points ahead of third place, Thomas’s top three flights were all FAI Triangle courses from Coronet Peak, including a course of 100+ miles (167 km) on Jan 9, the 6th best NZ FAI triangle ever!
* 2nd Runner Up Pilot: Leo Chelle Leo shared some big flights with Kellett in spring and early summer, including the best FAI triangles of October and November (113 km and 127 km respectively), and the season’s best open distance (192 km), all from Coronet Peak.
* 2023 Women’s XC Champion Pilot: Kinga Masztalerz In defending her NZ Women’s Champs title, Kinga’s flights included the 4th best open distance of the competition (137 km, Coronet Peak), and the longest FAI triangle course ever flown in NZ by paraglider by a female (121 km, Jan 21, Coronet Peak)!
* Best Rookie (first-time PG2 competitor) Pilot: Charlie Ginet Placed 37th overall, Charlie’s highest scoring flights were of very consistent 47, 48 and 47 km open distances, from three different sites (Coronet Peak, Long Gully and Kidds Bush)! The first being Charlie’s NZ 25 km milestone flight, flown on day one of the PG Nationals.
* North Island Champion Pilot: Mark Macdonald Mark’s flights included the season’s best open distance from Paeroa, 58 km, and a 67 km flight from Alans Hill that matched the site record!
* North Island Best Open Distance Pilot: Matthew Taggart 86.4 km from Kaimai, Waikato.
* South Island Best Open Distance Pilot: Leo Chelle and Ben Kellett 192 km from Coronet, Otago.
Well done all of the above! (Especially Ben) :) Thank you to all who submitted flights so we could see where there was good flying to be had.
Click on these links to go to full report for the 2023 New Zealand Paragliding Cross-Country Championships, including the table of the top 50 places overall, the North Island table (top 25), and season’s site best flights.
(April 1st 2021 to March 31st 2022)
Another epic season finished with lots of huge flights taking place. Again, the south was cranking with most of the season's big flights. A number of new site records tumbled across both the islands. No surprise that the southern club won the club competition with almost double the points of second place. Big congratulations to Louis who has again won the XC Championship for the 4th season in a row.
Lots of great XC competitions also taking place this season and a big shout out to all the event organizers around the country in such difficult times with gatherings.
Here's a few highlights:
2022 NZ XC Champions and Category Winners
Check out all the results and see how you did here
An Hang Gliding XC competition has been officially added to the New Zealand National XC Championship. You will notice at the left of the XContest New Zealand XC Champs landing page a list of new Hang Gliding Categories. All New Zealand Hang Glider pilots are encouraged to submit their flights and join in the competition.
The PG and HG XC Championships are individual competitions and are scored separately. Lets get in behind this effort to share flights, engage in some friendly competition and to hone our flying skills.
Simply head to XContest and Register for the New Zealand competition and start submitting your flights. Here is a set of instructions to help you on your way - Instructions
Season Wrap Up
(April 1st 2020 to March 31st 2021)
Another great season finished with lots of huge flights taking place. The south was cranking with most of the season's big flights coming out of Coronet Peak heading north. No surprise that the southern club won the club competition with almost double the points of second place. Big congratulations to Louis who has again won the XC Championship for the 3rd season in a row. Can this man be beaten?
Lots of great XC competitions also taking place this season and a big shout out to all the event organizers around the country!
2021 NZ XC Champions and Category Winners
![XContest [logo]](https://s.xcontest.org/img/xcontest.gif)
