Categories Paragliders 8th FAI European ACC Championship Albania – Czech team takes gold in PG landing accuracy!

8th FAI European ACC Championship Albania – Czech team takes gold in PG landing accuracy!

The Czechs are the European team champions! The stable performance they maintained in 12 competition rounds earned the Czech team European gold medals.

The 4th FAI European Precision Landing Championship took place in Gjirokastra, Albania, from 12 to 2024 October 8. The Czech Republic was represented in Albania by Vlastimil Kricnar, Vlastimil Vachtl, Radek Václavík, Petr Garbier, Kvido Hadaš, Jiří Novák, Ivana Ferarič and Lucie Martínková. All the mentioned Czech pilots scored points in the team competition, except for Jiří Novák, who competes only in the individual category Overall and the category Juniors.

A total of 100 pilots from 20 nations took part in the race, the race was scheduled for a total of 6 days and except for one day when it rained, the competitors flew every day. In total, the maximum possible number of laps was flown, i.e. 12.

From the beginning of the race, the teams from Kosovo, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Slovenia held the top spots. Gradually, the fight for first place narrowed down to the teams from the Czech Republic and Kosovo, followed closely by the teams from Germany and Slovenia. Until the last flight, it was not clear who would take the gold and who the silver. All of the aforementioned teams could have reached any place on the podium. After the last round, the Slovenians moved from fourth to third place, while the Kosovars managed to win second place. Thanks to excellent results throughout the race and the last flight of Radek Václavik, who landed 0 cm, the Czechs won first place and thus became European champions with a total score of:
Czech Republic 75 cm
Kosovo 76 cm
Slovenia 78 cm

There was a lot of competition in the Juniors category this year. The young Germans are very high in the world ranking and at the European Championship they did not let anyone to the front from the start of the race.

In this competition, the Czechs won 7th place for Lucie Martínková, 9th place for Kvido Hadaš and 12th place for Jiří Novák.

In the women's category, Lucia was successful only until the 7th round, after which she unfortunately moved away from the medal positions, finally finishing in 6th place. Ivana Ferarič presented herself with very good results during the whole race, but unfortunately it was only enough for the unpopular potato (fourth) place overall. Even so, this location is very beautiful.

Radek Václavik took the best individual place, who in the last round pulled off a wonderful 0 cm (complete center of the target) and thus secured the overall 7th place and helped the team in a huge way. Vlastimil Kricnar, who was among the first five drivers until the 7th round, unfortunately fell to 19th place during the following rounds. Defending vice-champion of Europe from two years ago, Vlastimil Vachtl ranked 23rd.

Other positions of the Czech representatives:
Petr Garbier 38th place
Lucie Martínková 39th place
Quido Hadas 44th place
Ivana Ferarič 45th place
Jiří Novák 78th place

The race was also open to pilots from non-European countries, the best man in the world ranking Yang Chan was invited and with a total result of 12 laps (9 cm) he also won this race. He will take points from the race into the world rankings, but he has not been announced in LA 2024 European Championship competition.
The European Championship was won by Ivan Pavlov (13 cm) from Serbia, Linus Schubert (13 cm) from Germany came second and Migjen Shala (14 cm) from Kosovo finished in third place.

 

Race page here.

Official results here.

Live scoring here.

 

 

Basic race facts

On Friday 4.10. from 17:00 – 21:00 will take place  registration
On Saturday 10:30 (5.10) – mandatory briefing for all pilots
V 16:30 Opening ceremony
On Sunday 6.10. morning training: max. 1 lap – 1 year/ pilot and the race will start immediately after training.

The race will be flown for 12 rounds with the KO system, which means that 6 rounds will be flown and after round 6, 7 people will start for round 60 and continue to round 8 as well.

Until 9-10 40 people will take the bike (20 will drop out)

The last 11 pilots will then enter LA 20th round.

List of official referees:

Igor Eržen (FAI Steward)
Zlatko Spirkoski (Meet Director)
Alket Islami (Safety director)
Koung Young Park (Chief Judge)
Shakira Azman (Event Judge)
Arlind Alikaj (Scorer)
Sasho Spirkoski (Target Judge)
Alin Raducan (Target Judge)
Nicolae Radu (Target Judge)
Sabina Ioana Mihailescu Murariu (Target Judge)
Arlind Krasniqi (Target Judge)
Xhelal Leskovci (Target Judge)
Kiro Ginoski (Start Marshall)
Boyan Stoyanov (Target Judge)

Reports

#0 Training day

From October 4 to 12, we can look forward to the 8th European Championship in Landing Accuracy, which takes place in Gjirokastra, Albania. For the Czech Republic, Vlastimilové Kricnar and Vachtl, Radek Václavík, Petr Garbier, Kvido Hadaš, Jirka Novák, Ivana Ferarič and Lucie Martínková.
Today, i.e. Friday 4.10. from 17:00 - 21:00 there will be registration
On Saturday 10:30 (5.10) – mandatory briefing for all pilots
Opening ceremony at 16:30
On Sunday 6.10. morning training: max. 1 round - 1 year/ pilot and immediately after training the race starts.
The race will be flown for 12 rounds with the KO system, which means that 6 rounds will be flown and after round 6, 7 people will start for round 60 and continue to round 8 as well.
Until 9-10 40 people will take the bike (20 will drop out)
The last 11 pilots will then enter LA 20th round.
Our pilots are excited, they are looking forward to good weather and we will be watching the entire Czech team.
Purely individually, Jirka Novák competes in two categories at the ME. Of course, he competes in the Overall and also in the Juniors category.
The following are registered for the team competition in the 5+2 team:
1. Owned Vachtl
2. Radek Václavik
3. Petr Garbier
4. Lucie Martínková (F)
5. Ivana Ferarič (F)
6. Vlastimil Kricnar
7. Quido Hadas
Lucka Martínková wins the Juniors and Women's categories, Ivana Ferarič wins the women's, Kvido Hadaš the juniors.
Stay with us, we will bring you important moments and less important ones that make the race unique.

#1 Training day

Today, the first official day at the European Championships is over for the Czech team. Not so some other expeditions, because registration is still ongoing and not every state has managed to register yet.
The Czechs had it all the easier because they did not fall into the crosshairs of the flight equipment inspection, i.e. wings and seats, and went through the classic registration (passports, insurance, etc.).
In the morning at 9:00 there was an official training where the pilots took off after one flight and after the wind got too strong, they went to see the city. The Balkan lover's heart will surely skip a beat when he sees today's photos.
However, after a short cultural experience, the racing part of the personality was heard in the pilots and they went to the airport again to train. Mistake – the rain silenced the racing part of the pilots, so they could continue to focus on themselves and preparation for the evening registration.
A strategic team dinner is planned for the evening before tomorrow's official start and then a sharp race.
We'll be there, trying to bring Albania as close to your monitors as possible, and fingers crossed!

#2 Race Day #1

After a day full of glory (photoshoot, ceremonial parade through the city, official dinner), the pilots slept in for the first day of racing. Yesterday was more of a day for the pilots themselves, the attached photos will bring it much closer, and today and the following days, on the other hand, we will get a little closer so you don't miss anything.

▶6 basic rounds are played - remember, after the 5th round, the worst result is deleted.
▶After that, the first 60 pilots advance to the elimination rounds, and the results from the other rounds will continue to be added to them. Thus, the competition does not end in the final rounds, but continues further.
▶Additionally, LA 6 best women and 6 best juniors advance to the final rounds (even if they did not fit into the first 60 pilots) and they fly the final until the end.
▶In the team category, each country has the right to field a team of 5+2 female pilots and the top three in each round score - regardless of gender.
▶the page with all the links is in place - Sports results - https://www.laacr.cz/…/8th-fai-mistrovstvi-evropy-acc…/
▶We'll bring you the live stream the moment it happens. Everything will be added in the comments to this article.
We wish everyone a happy day, good conditions, a pleasant atmosphere. Let everyone in our team fly as they have this whole season!
And finally, a gem for XC lovers. At this year's European Championship, two participants of this year's XC Junior World Championship are competing in landing accuracy - Flavio Funiati (Fra) and Kvido Hadaš (Czech Republic). I believe that they have their own fan club among the viewers of this competition, and we will also be watching them closely.

 

 #3 Race Day #2

On LA 1st race day, only one full round was flown in Albania, because it started only after training, i.e. after noon, and in addition, the race day was interrupted several times due to strong wind.
Flying has already started today, according to the predetermined order, so far the order of the pilots at the start has not changed according to the result.
After yesterday, our pilots stand as follows:
11. Vlastimil Kricnar
20. Radek Václavík
31. Owned Vachtl
49. Ivana Ferarič
54. Lucie Martínková
67. Quido Hadas
74. Petr Garbier
74. Jiří Novák
Unfortunately, the online transmission is only in the paid version of Albanian Television.
Today's broadcast again in the comments.

 

 #4 Race Day #3

Yesterday was a very successful day for Czech colors. Not all pilots managed to fly two full rounds, the unfinished 3rd round will be flown today.
Yesterday, he didn't start exactly as Vlast had imagined Vachtl 58 cm, but we have no idea what the conditions were. In the second round he added a beautiful 7 cm. Radek second round 10 and in LA 3rd added 4 cm expertly. Petr Garbier also managed two laps, when he finished 4 and then 0!
The others managed only one round, and that's Lucka's beautiful 3 cm! Kvido 4 cm, Ivka 13 cm and Jirka Novák a beautiful raid, which, however, did not hold and Jirka fell in front of the target and did not land. Unfortunately 200.
A special feature for tech-savvy viewers will surely be the method of dragging on the ME - check out Jard Jindra's video https://www.facebook.com/100005484966497/videos/8449646991793805/
You can also take a look at the filmed moments from Day 2 https://www.facebook.com/100005484966497/videos/1058131315914752/
Results same as yesterday here https://pgacc.app/tabs/competitions/view/84
Do you like videos of the Czech team's footfalls in the comments? Paragliding viewer wants today's information? Write to us in the comments, we will be happy to answer any questions about the competition!
All nicely put together on the LAA - Sports results page https://www.laacr.cz/…/8th-fai-mistrovstvi-evropy-acc…/

 

 #5 Race day #3 in the evening

We have had a fantastic day! The Czech team was not afraid of it. It turned out that the assumption of an advantage for our team in the new team composition system, namely 5 + 2 regardless of gender, was correct!
The moment a team has 7 pilots, each of whom is able to pedal 0, and when the pilots are able to always combine three good results, we have a Joker on our side!
However, today's steady performance exceeded expectations and desires. We had rounds where they didn't score 2cm for the team because there was one zero and two ones. Every single one of the pilots kicks for the team as much as possible!
We have completed the first qualification as well - less than a round of final elimination fights.
Except for Jirka, all our pilots progressed to the top 60. The progress in the next elimination round will be more difficult tomorrow after the completion of the 7th and subsequently the 8th round, and it is very likely that one of our team will be eliminated, however, they will only be eliminated from the individual competition, as the team is currently in the leading position and all team members are flying to until the last round. (results will not be counted for them in the event of elimination to individuals).
However, that's not all, we stepped not only on the team box, but also on the individual box, in three categories.
Fingers crossed, you'll have us here in the morning! We will once again bring you all-day coverage and we strongly hope that the successful journey of our pilots will continue tomorrow ❤
The overall standings are still here (pilots fly in reverse from the 7th round, i.e. from the last to the first).
Videos from today are completely in the comments of the previous article, i.e. today's news.
Owned by Kricnar Vlastimil Vachtl Quido Hadas Lucie Martínková, Iva Ferarič, Radek Václavík, Petr GArbier