Gliders flying high for historic contest
International competition came to the skies of Shropshire as the Long Mynd-based Midland Gliding Club hosted the first-ever Wenlock Olympian Games gliding competition featuring vintage gliders harking back to a time when gliding was briefly an Olympic sport.
International competition came to the skies of Shropshire as the Long Mynd-based Midland Gliding Club hosted the first-ever Wenlock Olympian Games gliding competition featuring vintage gliders harking back to a time when gliding was briefly an Olympic sport.
"We have seen history in the making," said club chairman and competition director Jon Hall, who said the event had been a fantastic success.
A field of more than 40 pilots from seven countries took part in a week of tasks involving best distance flown and the fastest time over a set course, usually about 100 kilometres.
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Among the VIPs at the event were the vice president of the World Air Games.
The week opened with a task that took the gliders over Much Wenlock for those at the Wenlock Olympian Games field to see.There was also a spectacular display of glider aerobatics by the German pilot Christoph Zahn, flying a replica of the Habicht glider that demonstrated aerobatic gliding at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The competition, which had sponsorship from Eblex, the organisation for the English beef and sheep meat industry, involved vintage Olympia gliders, a competition type designed specifically with the Olympics in mind, and its spiritual successor, the Ka6.
Winner of the Gold in the Olympia class was Bruno Wettstin from Switzerland and the winner of the Ka6 class was Adrian Emck from Great Britain.
Gliding was an official demonstration sport in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, and was to have made its debut as part of the programme in the 1940 Helsinki games, until war intervened.
While gliding's official Olympic involvement was short-lived, it has now gained a place as part of future Wenlock Olympian Games.
