Sunday, August 3
    The morning sky is clear, just like yesterday, and the first few strands of cloud are born away by a slight northerly wind. The registration process finishes off with the 53 participant, which is a record number for this race. The entire race field rides up to the Lukova cable car stop by 11 a.m., and continues upward on foot, another 200m of elevation the starting ground at 1900 meters above sea level.

    Not everyone, however, is willing to hike along the steep and winding mountain path in the burning sun with heavy packs on their backs. Juraj Kleja unpacks his stuff at the upper cable car station and after several minutes of patient circling he lands at today's starting ground, 200 meters above. It is difficult to say whether this is a clever marketing strategy or just human laziness.




    At the briefing, a 48km long discipline towards the East, along the crest of the Low Tatras, with a goal in the village of Šumiac beneath Králova hola is announced. The two-hour start window will be open from 12:30 to 14:30 and the starting point, this time, is not Chopok itself, but a point along the crest called Polana, which is several kilometers west of Chopok.




    Catching on in the strong noon thermals and the risers moving at speeds of up to 7m/s is no difficulty, and most of the racers get up into the air in quick succession. Cloud cover is much more modest today than yesterday and the slopes of Chopok are shaded far less. Only Robert Králik hesitates with take off because he was stung by a wasp while getting ready, and he's worried he might not be able to get his swollen head out of his helmet after landing.

    At the time of the opening of the starting point at 13:00 there are already 8 pilots circling overhead and several minutes later they fly again over the peak of Chopok towards the East. At 13:35, Robert Broz plummets over Chopok, trying to get his chute going without using the spare parachute. Unfortunately without success. This results in a compression fracture of a vertabrae and a broken nose. Barely 10 minutes later, the white spare chute of another pilot appears above the peak of Chopok, but this time it's not one of the racers, but a tourist.



    Flying in just light sandals without socks forces Juraj Kleja to hurry so much that he lands first at the goal in Šumiaci pod Královou holou, having flown for one hour and 37 minutes, thereby becoming the winner of today's discipline. It takes another hour and 24 minutes before Polish racer Jacek Profus appears over the goal line. Coming in third is Peter Hvorka, 600 meters short of the goal line, followed by Mirek "Radar" Stehula who is 1.8 Km short of the goal. A group of four other pilots lands near the village of Valkovna, barely 3km from the goal, and two of them - Miroslav Matovic and Pavel "Arthur" Kvadra - are in the Hobby category.



    "I'll get there with difficulty by tomorrow morning", says the SMS message from Leoš Poruba from somwhere in the wildnerness. A total of 16 racers lands on the crest in the vicinity of Ďumbier and while some head back towards Chopok on foot to fly down into the valley, others return in soaked shoes several hours later, having waded through mountain streams and seen live bears. Fortunately, the Tatra mountain bears rest on Sundays and usually don't eat people until Monday morning. Hopefully by this time the lost Leoš Poruba will have made it back.