Closing Ceremony

Saturday morning we needed to get up early again to pack and be ready for the official closing ceremony at 10 am. Maria had brought along a book with wonderful photographs of Canadian landscapes. Virginia added a dedication, signed by us all, naming every staff member and thanking them for making our stay so memorable. I believe our hosts truly appreciated this memento of our stay when we presented it to them.

The awards and closing ceremony was very impressive. Once more, we were all decked out in our team uniforms. The top ten pilots in every class were named individually and called up on stage with third, second and first on the podium while their national flags were raised behind them and the national anthem of the winner's nation was played by a live orchestra. I kept thinking how close Jerzy had come to be in the top ten in the 18m Class. In the overall score Jerzy had placed in the top ten on five out of 8 contest days, getting as high as 5th on day 5. Even slipping to 11th on the last contest day, Jerzy made Canada the highest placing non-European nation in the 18m Class. Congratulations, Jerzy!

Some of the point results were very close. In the 18m class the point spread between 10th and 8th was 6 points and there was a tie for 6th place.


Besides having a World Champion in the 18m Class, France also won the Team Cup which is based on a team score of all classes, combining the results of Rieti and Luesse.


There was a big cheer in the German camp when Michael Sommer, the defending world champion took the center podium again in open class and second place also went to a German pilot.

Hungary, as the host of the next World Championships, was very happy with the decisive win of György Gulyas in the 15m Class.

The Russian aeroclub gave a special award to the three female competitors.

The FAI flag gets handed over to Hungary, the host of the next World Gliding Championships.

After the ceremony we said our good-byes to some old friends and many new ones, in particular the Serbian team from Vancouver, Branko, Nicola and Dimitri. I had a flight to catch, so I was the fist to depart. After having spent almost every waking minute with the Team for the past three weeks it felt strange and sad to leave the rest of the Team behind.

This was my third Worlds and my first as team manager.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you, the readers of this blog, for following along and for your messages of support. They helped a lot to motivate and encourage our competitors. Also, again a heartfelt thank-you to all our sponsor who supported the team and helped making it happen. I truly hope, one day we will see two Canadian pilots each in at least two classes, so we can effectively team fly.

End of Blog - 2008 Luesse