Thursday, August 15
    "Everything will be alright!" announces Michal Oravec in the Russian version of his language at the morning briefing and the optimistic expression on his face indicates that it really will be so today. The weather forecast for today is, if not good, at least decent and at 10:00 everyone is loaded up. In light of the northern streaming, we're heading for the Čierťaž starting ground and the briefing is planned for 12:30.







    The first discipline announced for this year's Podbrezové Cup is 60 kilometers long and heads East to Polomka, which is the first and also only turning point. The goal line is set at the big landing ground past the village of Lopej and the start window will be open from 13:00 to 16:00.




    The sky is still continuously overcast and the wind blows from the right of the launch ramps. One of the first to stand on a starting ramp 10 minutes after the opening of the start window is Hungarian racer, Peter Kecskes, who has already tried out flying at Čierťazi yesterday afternoon. This unfortunately cost him his opportunity for visiting the castle of Slovenská Lupča. Flying beneath the low cloud bases, however, brings to mind more ridge soaring in a brisk North wind and half an hour later the Hungarian racer winds up below the hill in the village of Dubova. In the meantime several others try to fly off with similar results and a long wait for an improvement of conditions begins.

    Only shortly before 15:00 the sun begins to show through breaks in the clouds and racers begin to crowd both ramps. The wind strengthens and becomes gusty, but many manage to turn the bases at altitudes of around 1,700 meters above sea level.



    The conditions en route, however, do not allow for reaching the turning point in Polomka and most racers land around the 12th kilometer, between Podbrezova and Brezno. Only Juraj Sladky makes it past Brezno to the 25th kilometer and so becomes the winner of today's discipline. Approximately 6km behind him is second place Yakimchuk Pavel from the Ukraine and his team colleague, Petrenko Yuriy.



    Point evaluation for today's relatively short flight distances is very low and the current overall placement will certainly change much in the following days.