Sylvain Gerbaud won the day on Open Class
The third racing day at Częstochowa-Rudniki delivered soarable conditions across all three classes, with Assigned Area Tasks set for the 18 Metre, Open, and 20 Metre Multi-Seat classes.
Open Class
The Open Class flew a slightly different route over an area ranging from 142 to 351 km, with a two-and-a-half-hour window. The task went north-west to a 15 km radius point, then east to the Star turnpoint, south to Panki and Stobiecko, before the familiar run home via East20K. Fifteen gliders started; one, David Jansen (JS5), did not.
Sylvain Gerbaud of France took the day win flying an EB 29R, covering 334 km at 128.77 kph in 2 hours 35 minutes for the full 839 points on offer. His margin over the two pilots tied for second was meaningful — Sebastian Kawa (Poland, JS5) and Laurent Aboulin (France, JS5) both scored 817 points, averaging just under 127 kph over slightly differing distances. Kawa flew a shorter route of 328 km while Aboulin covered 335 km in a slightly longer time; the scoring settled them level.
German team Felipe Levin and Michael Sommer — both on EB 29Rs — finished fourth and fifth within a second of each other in elapsed time, covering the maximum permitted distance of 337 km. Oscar Goudriaan (JS5, South Africa) was sixth at 124 kph. From UK Russell Cheetham (JS5) took seventh, flying a notably shorter 303 km but maintaining 121 kph to stay competitive. Tomas Rendla in eighth and Bas Seijffert in ninth, both on EB 29Rs, covered 321 and 308 km respectively.
The JS5 and EB 29R gliders dominated the top twelve results entirely, with a single JS1C TJ 21m — flown by Jiri Kusbach in 12th. Austrian Christian Hynek (EB 29DR) dropped to 13th with 607 points, a gap of nearly 90 points back to the leaders suggesting a notably different day in the areas he flew. From Denmark Jan Buch-Madsen, flying a JS3 RES 18m in the Open class, finished 14th and last among finishers at 98.39 kph over 276 km.
Laurent Aboulin landing in second place in Open Class
18 Metre Class
The 18 Metre task covered an area between 144 and 384 km, with an optimum distance calculated at around 260 km, set over a two-hour window. Turnpoints took the field north towards Kobylczyce and Wieruszów before swinging south through Panoszów and Stobiecko, then home to Rudniki.
Stefan Langer of Germany, flying an AS 33 Es, won the day with day 664 points averaging 135.30 kph over 292 km in 2 hours 9 minutes. French team Christophe Abadie (JS3 TJ) and Victor Mallick (JS3) shared second place on 640 points, both averaging just under 133 kph. Takeshi Maruyama of Japan (JS3 TJ) was fourth on 620 points at 130.68 kph, with Hungarians Kornel Negro (AS 33 Es) and Geza Toth (JS3 RES) close behind in fifth and sixth.
The spread across the leading group was tight. Positions 4 through 7 were separated by less than 1 kph in average speed, a reminder of how fine the margins are at this level. German Mario Kiessling flew one of the shorter distances in the field — 270 km — but kept his speed high enough at 130.39 kph to hold seventh place.
Further down the field, the results reflected the variable choices pilots made in the task areas. Slovakian Maros Divok flew the longest distance of any finisher — nearly 293 km — in just under two hours thirty-four minutes, which placed him 32nd. At the other end, Australians Lumpy Paterson and Norm Bloch, both flying JS3 TJs, finished 39th and 40th with averages just under 99 and 98 kph respectively over around 217–219 km, suggesting they found less favourable air in their chosen sectors.
20 Metre Multi-Seat Class
The Multi-Seat class flew a two-and-a-half-hour task between roughly 147 and 412 km, optimum around 271 km, with a reference speed of 121.67 kph. The route took the 16 competing teams from Rudniki north to a 5 km cylinder, west to Ostrzeszów, then south through Panki and Stobiecko before the final leg home. The class was dominated by Arcus variants — 13 of the 16 gliders were Arcus M or T models — with one ASG 32 Mi and one HpH 304 TS also in the mix.
Hungarian pair Péter Kassai and Zoltán Mészáros took the day's 817 maximum points in their Arcus T, averaging 121.67 kph — matching the optimum speed exactly — over 309 km in 2 hours 32 minutes. The German crew of Karsten Leucker and Jan Omsels took second at 119.54 kph, and Belgian pair Francois Delfosse and Arnaud De Broqueville were third, a fraction behind at 119.39 kph. Polish team Łukasz Grabowski and Judyta Czyż in fourth flew the shortest distance of the top four — 301 km — but held 119 kph to remain in contention.
Australian pair Adam Keith Woolley and Gateley were fifth flying in 2 hours 30 minutes on 117.69 kph for 763 points.
After three racing days the Germans, French and Sebastian Kawa lead open class. The German and French teams lead 18m and the Germans, Poles and Hungarians top the 20m class. There are still plenty of days to come and al always, the pilots who can keep near the top of the field consistantly will be in contention towards the end.
