Flying the MENTOR 4 and ION 4, Berni Pessl won the worldwide ranking of the XContest in standard, sport, and serial class! On his TRITON 2 light, Simon Oberrauner dominated the Bordairline Hike & Fly competition series. Chris Bessei received a special Fairness Award for helping a fellow pilot after deploying their reserve.
“Normally, we try not to select the same pilots as in the previous years, but Berni Pessl and Simon Oberrauner left us no choice” says Wolfi, “their performance was simply too good.”
Flying the ION 4 and MENTOR 4, Berni Pessl not only won the standard class of the worldwide XContest again (you can find the results here), scoring 2058 points – 400 points more than the second placed pilot – he also won the sport and serial class rankings of the XContest. This means, his flew well enough to beat of all EN C and D wings – with his EN B gliders!
After recognising his talent as the rising star of the NOVA Juniors Team in 2015, it was not surprising that Simon Oberrauner did well again. But the way the 25-year-old dominated the Bordairline competition series was impressive. Simon participated in four of the five events, coming first and second twice. As an XC pilot, he came in 5th in the worldwide sports class ranking with his TRITON 2 light. All this will hopefully bring him a step closer to his big dream: participating in the Red Bull X-Alps 2017.
Chris Bessei is another pretty young but already very experienced pilot. He was selected from us as a NOVA Junior pilot nine years ago at the age of 16 and has since become German Champion various times. In 2016, he showed a great sportsman’s attitude when landing during a very promising XC flight to help a fellow pilot who had to deploy their reserve.
“It happens rather often that somebody throws their reserve and everybody else thinks that there will be somebody else to help. But in the end nobody does. Chris did! He sacrificed a top ranking as this day was the best of the year with over 30 pilots flying a 200+ km FAI triangle. To us, his Fairness Award matters more than anything!”
We couldn't have said this any better than our captain Till and we congratulate all of them for their great paragliding season!
As a prize, they received a Tom Tom Bandit (Premium pack).
Read more about the NOVA Pilots Team here and on their blog.