”All is going excellently”, says the event director Igor Virshki. Pilots got a good rest yesterday which was free from flying and on the third competition day round 8 was finished as well as rounds 9 and 10. 

This is the second Asian Championship in Kazakhstan and the organisation is getting very professional. One example of this is the launch marshall Rinat Mazhitov who runs the launch in a steady, calm, and friendly manner from morning to evening.  

At first, the conditions were calm after yesterday’s rain and pilots made good results. Then thermal activity started to kick in and pilots’ skills levels began to show in the results. Top places are once again a matter of centimeters, after 8 rounds there was a mix of Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Korea in top 7, spiced up with the guest pilot from Czech Republic, Vlastimil Kricnar on place 6. He comments: ”It is good to have a competition which demands pilot skills, this is totally different from flying in the steady wind at some coastal site.” After 10 rounds Vlastimil had climbed to place 4. 

In teams, four nations have a realistic chance to get medals: Thailand, South Korea, host nation Kazakhstan, and Saudi Arabia. Korea and Kazakhstan have full teams of 7 (5+2), Thailand has 6 pilots, and Saudi Arabia 5 so they have less room for mistakes as the best 4 results in a team are counted from each round.

After rounds 9 and 10 in varying winds Thailand’s Jirasak Witeetham still has the lead with 25 cm.  Saudi Arabia’s Nawaf Al-Rehaili is 4 cm after with 29 cm and Mohsen Mansouri from Iran number 3 with 34 cm. A junior, Tanapat Luangiam is 5th at the moment. The best female pilot, Donghwa Yang from South Korea, is in 12th place.

The third competition day was finished at 14.30 and now all prepare for the exciting last two rounds tomorrow!

Text by Riikka Vilkuna

Photos by Riikka Vilkuna and Aleksandr Bagrov

All results  https://civlcomps.org/event/pga-asian-2022/results