19th FAI World Paragliding Championships

LA 30th XC Paragliding World Championship will be held from 8 August to 13.9 September in Castelo, Brazil. Castelo is located approximately 19 km northeast of Rio de Janeiro and 450 km from the state capital Vitoria. It is located at an altitude of 145 meters above sea level. Castolo is bordered by Alfredo Chaves and Domingos Martins (east), Venda Nova do Imigrante and Conceição do Castelo (north), Muniz Freire and Alegre (west) and Cachoeiro de Itapemirim (south).
The city is surrounded by mountains on all sides and it is possible to start from any of them. The races take place in the valleys of the Rio Castelo and Rio Itapemirim rivers. This year, 130 pilots will take part, each country has received a certain number of places, for the Czech Republic it is three places.

The World Championships were held in Brazil in 2005, when the Czech team won bronze in the nations competition (1st Switzerland, 2nd Germany, 3rd Czech Republic). At that time, the team competing in Brazil consisted of David Ohlídal – 12th place, Axis Mercury, Radek Večeřa – 21st place, Gradient Avax RSF, František Pavloušek – 30th place, Axis Mercury, Tomáš Brauner – 52nd place, MAC (Mac Para) Magus 25 wing , Martin Orlík – 82nd place, MAC (Mac Para) Magus wing , Petra Krausová – 38th place, Martina Pospíšilová – 141st place, Axis Mercury wing ). A report from this World Championships was written by Petra Krausová and published in Pilot No. 5/2005, and you can now download it in pdf format and read how much the conditions of the races, flying and the World Championships differ with a difference of 20 years.

MS 2005
Size : 2.5 MB Format : PDF

Czech team

This year, a three-member team is flying to Brazil, consisting of

Jan Jares, Ondřej Pohořelský a Petr Kostrhun. These three pilots will also form a team for this year's World Championships, which will compete in the team competition. If a woman were to nominate herself to the team with her results, she could be the 4th participant in the team. Unfortunately, the Czech national team currently does not have any women who would meet the criteria for participation in the World Championships. LA 3 best results for each team day are counted.

Petr Kostrhun is currently ranked 1st in the WPRS national rankings and 18th in the WPRS world rankings.

Petr competes on an Ozone Enzo 3 wing and an Ozone submarine seat in blue. He is known for his precision in preparing his equipment, his temperament and his fondness for practicing safe flying not only for himself but also for his opponents. A medallion about Petr can be viewed here.

Jan Jareš is currently ranked 2nd in the WPRS national rankings and 29th in the WPRS world rankings.

Honza races on the Ozone Enzo 3 wing and the Genie race 5 seat. Honza is one of the stable, calm pilots, and this year he has made progress in his racing tactics.

The medallion about Honza can be viewed here.

Ondra Pohořelský is currently ranked 3rd in the WPRS national ranking and 42nd in the WPRS world ranking.

Ondra races on an Ozone Enzo 3 wing and an Ozone submarine seat in bright green. Ondra is one of the youngest pilots in the Czech XC team, but despite his youth, he is an excellent pilot who has shown an upward trend in performance for the second season in a row.

Information about Ondra can be found in the interview in Pilot 7/2025 and also in this report from the Junior World Championships, which Ondra participated in last year. Alternatively, on the FB pages of the PG Association

Task committee

Vinicus Matuk – Meet Director, Goran Dimiskovski – Civl Steward, Washington Peruchi, Hernán Pitocco, Andreas Malecki

World Cup 2025 program

Saturday, August 30 
10:00 to 18:00 free flying 18:20 to 19:20. 1st TeamLeader briefing (Ondřej Pohořelský is the Team Leader for the race)
Sunday, August 31
09:00 to 18:00 registration 10:00 to 18:00 unofficial training 19:00 opening ceremony 
Monday, September 1 
09:00 to 18:00 official training
September 2–12 racing days 
Saturday, September 13   
11:30 closing ceremony 


Daily program during race days important for fans 8:30 transport to the start 11:30 start window opens 16:00 scoring starts 20:00 announcement of the results of the day 20:30 scoring closes