Weather was good today – perhaps a bit better than forecast. Tasks were – as expected on the final day – moderate: 3-hour Area tasks for all classes. All US Team pilots comfortably completed their tasks. Mike Sorenson deserves note for finishing 13th overall – a solid performance at his first World Gliding Championships.
Gliders are now in their trailers, our team headquarters (a tent occupying a small part of a veritable tent city at the Tabor airfield) is now gone – it and other Team equipment are headed to the airfield at Zbraslavice (60 km northeast), where Sylvia Grandstaff will compete in the Women’s World Gliding Championship, in July.
It’s remarkable how quickly a large gliding competition can be folded up and packed away. By the day after tomorrow, little will remain apart from some strange wear patterns in the airfield grass. We were told that this will soon be the site of a music festival, some of whose attendees will perhaps wonder about those curious, fading patterns: our championship site reduced to the role of palimpsest.
It’s time to look at the new World Champion in each of the three classes.
Of all classes, Standard offered the least drama at WGC2025. That’s due to a remarkably strong and consistent performance by Jeroen Jennen from Belgium. Only once did he place lower than 6th for the day and he finished “going away”, winning the final day for a score more than 500 points clear of the field. A dominant performance.
In Club class, Stefan Langer’s victory in the 18-Meter class at WGC2024 in Uvalde pretty well made him the favorite here. And a number of notable flights with German teammate Uwe Wahlig (they took the top two daily places three times) reinforced that view. But they were not near the top every day, and going into the final task Stefan’s overall lead was a mere 20 points. His final flight was an emphatic statement: he won the day by an improbable margin (117 points), erasing all doubt about who was the best here. You’ll search long and hard to find anyone who believes Stefan is likely to stop at two World titles.
The real drama was in 15-Meter class: Lukasz Grabowski of Poland was standing in first place overall, with teammate Pawel Wojciechowski second and Tom Arscott of Great Britain lurking in third, 65 points back. Lukaz had a good but not a great flight, finishing 8th for the day. Tom was 4th; the difference was 55 points, making Lukaz World Champion by just 10 points. A big shock was that Pawel, on a day when nearly everyone finished, got low and had to use his motor, dropping him from second to 9th overall
-John Good