Tuesday, August 6, 2002
    The morning, as usual, is sunny, but judging by the speed of the formation of clouds, the day will be heavily overcast and occasional afternoon showers cannot be ruled out. Everyone hurries and following a quick briefing they're all ready and waiting at the cable by 11:00 a.m.







    The wheat is quickly separated from the chaff on the hike up to the starting ground, made the more strenuous by yesterday's pine-needle gin fest, as some pant heavily, clutch at their hearts, gasp for breath and stagger along the narrow mountain path and others manage easily, while discussing the complicated Slovak political situation, indicating its bright tomorrows with a smile.

    Today's discipline is shorter and the opening of the merely hour-long start window is set for 12:30. The entire route with a goal in Svarina is 27km long and has only a single turning point - the broadcast aerial over Závažna Poruba. However, several minutes before the opening of the start window the entire starting ground is shadowed by clouds and the wind blows at our backs. Smokers pull out cigarettes, tourists sit down and a long wait begins.

    After half an hour of waiting, Vladimír Tranžík takes off on his second attempt, heading northeast and following several minutes of calm flying with a newly-mounted camera on his helmet, lands in the valley below. Only 10 minutes before the closing of the start window do the majority of racers take off, with great difficulty, pressed for time and pushed on by the first drops of a quick shower. They slowly gain altitude far into the forefront of the field, above the lit areas, and then fly off East beneath the relatively low cloud bases, at around 1,900 m above sea level.



    Only eight pilots land before the decisive 15th kilometer today, and seven make it to the goal. Michal Čierny and Tomáš Král, however, took off after the closing of the start window, so the scoring system awards them zero points for successfully reaching the goal. Eight other pilots are afflicted with a late take off today.

    Michal Orolin arrives first at the goal in two hours, becoming the victor of today's discipline. Six minutes later, Peter Borgula comes in second, followed by Peter Vyparina in third place. Several minutes later Matúš Škvarka, Peter Mensák, Daniel Balaška and Juraj Čiernik fly in. And so major changes immediately take place in the overall placing.