2017 Paragliding Accuracy World Cup Tour. Test Event for the 6th FAI European Paragliding Accuracy Championship,
Kobarid, Slovenia. Andy Cowley reports...

The weather gods smiled today on the Paragliding Accuracy Competition in the scenic town of Kobarid, Slovenia. After two weeks of virtually constant rain soaking the ground, the temperatures dropped suddenly; snow covered the nearby mountains overnight and then during registration and the first practice day the clouds vanished and the sun emerged. 
As well as the fifth and final round of the 2017 PGA World Cup, the competition is the Category 2 (test) pre-event for the 6th FAI European PGA Championships, to be held in twelve months’ time. 
Blue skies greeted the first competition day on Friday 22 Sep which started with a small but excellent opening ceremony in the Kobarid School. The 90 competition pilots were welcomed with entertainment from several groups of young school children followed by a speech from the mayor of Kobarid who formally opened the event. 
The winds were particularly light, mostly under 1 m/s, and smooth throughout the day, however, during the first round some of the best pilots in the world had a very bad start with some unexpectedly poor scores. With the conditions ideal and the competition organisers on top of their game, over three rounds were completed with no complaints or protests and only one reflight by the end of the day.
Joint Leaders after Round 3 were Rok PRELOžNIK from Slovenia and Valery TZVETANOV from Bulgaria, each on a total score of 7 cms, closely followed by Thomas WIDYANANTO from Indonesia on just 9 cms. Markéta TOMASKOVA from the Czech Republic leads the women pilots with a score of 13 cms followed by Milawati SIRIN from Indonesia on 16cms and Katie LAWRENCE from the UK on 25cms.
The weather forecast for the second day is not so favourable and suggests that any sun will be interrupted by rain showers at various points throughout the weekend. Despite these meteorological challenges, the Meet Director and his more than capable competition team are ready to try and ensure that the remaining three rounds of the competition can be completed successfully.