On January 17th the 2013 World Hang Gliding Championship held in Forbes, Australia, saw Manfred Ruhmer take first place for men’s hang gliding with a total of 9010 points, winning his fourth world crown.
Alessandro Ploner and Fillippo Oppici, both from Italy, finished second (8871) and third (8560), respectively. Ruhmer took first place by a margin of only 139 points over the last year’s world champion, Alessandro Ploner.
Ruhmer is noted as one of the most prestigious hang gliders in the world, having won the World Championship three times previously and the European Championship four times. In 2005 he retired from competing, but returned in 2009, only to be beaten by Ploner at the World Championship held in France.
Team sections placed Italy in first with 23,879 points, USA second (23,477) and Australia third (22,627).
Corina Schweigershausen, from Germany, took first place for women’s hang gliding with 5930 points. Second place was held by Kathleen Rigg from Great Britain (4414) and Tove Heaney from Australia (3849).
After ten days of competition, there were over 1500 launches with no crashes and the most serious injury sustained in a landing was when the pilot required a brief trip to the hospital after a somewhat heavy landing. Over 100 pilots participated (only eight in the women’s class) from 23 countries across the globe, averaging over 100 launches during each day of the 10-day competition, with 11 tug planes in operation.
The event was graciously hosted by the Forbes Sport and Recreation Club.
Top 20 Results
| 1 | Manfred Ruhmer | AUT | Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 | 9010 |
| 2 | Alessandro Ploner | ITA | Icaro Laminar 14.1 | 8871 |
| 3 | Filippo Oppici | ITA | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 8560 |
| 4 | Attila Bertok | HUN | Moyes Litespeed S5 | 8531 |
| 5 | Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli | ESP | Wills Wing T2C | 8249 |
| 6 | Grant Crossingham | GBR | Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 | 8242 |
| 7 | Primoz Gricar | SLO | Aeros Combat 13.5 GT | 8171 |
| 8 | Scott Barrett | AUS | Airborne REV 13.5 | 8131 |
| 8 | Balazs Ujhelyi | HUN | Moyes Litespeed RS4 | 8131 |
| 10 | Antoine Boisselier | FRA | Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 | 8128 |
| 11 | Jonny Durand | AUS | Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 | 8069 |
| 12 | Robin Hamilton | USA | Moyes Litespeed RX4 | 8031 |
| 13 | Gerd Dönhuber | GER | Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 | 7888 |
| 14 | Michael Friesenbichler | AUT | Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 | 7878 |
| 15 | Gordon Rigg | GBR | Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 | 7854 |
| 16 | Paris Williams | USA | Aeros Combat GT 13.5 | 7842 |
| 17 | Gary Wirdnam | GBR | Icaro Laminar 13.7 | 7734 |
| 18 | Christian Ciech | ITA | Icaro Laminar 14 | 7641 |
| 19 | Carl Wallbank | GBR | Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 | 7631 |
| 20 | Mario Alonzi | FRA | Aeros Combat 13.2 GT | 7584 |
