10 Aug 2024

French team fly high at the 1st FAI World Paramotor Endurance Championships

Team France are heading home from the UK elated, after a significant medal haul at the inaugural FAI World Paramotor Endurance Championships, hailed as a “historic moment” in the sport’s development by FAI President, David Monks.

The French remained ‘the team to beat’ throughout the competition, their pilots demonstrating the finely tuned technical skills to perform well across the nine tasks set for foot launch - PF1 - and trike - PL1 - classes. In hot pursuit were the British, German and Italian foot launch pilots, with the Qatari and Polish teams vying for podium places in the trike category.

A jubilant Glenn Michelland celebrates his gold medal

France gained six medals in total across the two classes: golds in both overall teams, plus golds for Romain Mauban (PF1) and Glenn Michelland (PL1), a silver for Frédéric Mallard (PL1) and a bronze for Stéphane Fontana (PF1).

Speaking at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 10 August, Event Director Barney Townsend congratulated all the winners and expressed the organising committee's pleasure at receiving such a high number of entrants for this first edition of the new endurance format, saying that he was "overjoyed that so many pilots and so many countries" joined the competition. He also thanked them for their "airmanship, sportsmanship and general goodwill throughout."

CIMA President, Wolfgang Lintl also remarked on the amicable atmosphere, noting that it was "not just about flying, but reinforcing friendships," whilst FAI President David Monks, who distributed medals and diplomas to the winners, praised the pilots' "incredible feats" and "spirit of adventure".

The 1st FAI World Paramotor Endurance Championships took place at Manston Airport, Kent, UK between 3-10 August 2024 with 79 pilots from fifteen nations who travelled from all across Europe and as far as Australia, Japan, USA and Qatar. French, Czech, Polish German and Qatari teams put forward several pilots, whilst some, such as Klaus Angerer from Austria, Finland's Mika Virolainen and Jason Killian from Ireland, travelled solo to compete. The British team had eleven pilots participating across the two classes.

David Qatar team
FAI President David Monks congratulations the Qatari team

See photos of the competition

diverse COMPETITION

Pilots of all ages and backgrounds showed the navigation skill, wing control and strategic decision-making to put in some outstanding performances, as years of experience went head-to-head against first time enthusiasm. The youngest foot launch pilot, Andrea Cecchotto of Italy, aged 20, was just pipped to the post in the Fuel Economy task by Britain’s Russell Hesketh Roberts who has been flying for 21 years. Both stayed in the air for well over two hours with the allocated 2kg of fuel.

A number of pilots had more slalom paramotor experience than the classic championship format, and were interested to try the endurance to develop their skillset.

Organisers also highlighted the presence of the five female pilots who participated: two from the USA and three from France, whose Morgane Planton - more usually seen whizzing around slalom pylons - came 10th overall, testament to her technical skills and adaptability as a pilot.

Female paramotor 2024
L-R: Leah Catullo and Gillian Wintermute - USA; Sandra Moreels, Morgane Planton and Séverine Deutsch, France