The Talloires Paragliding World Cup event is over and the prizegiving was a nice event. Plenty of people turned up to watch as the winners of the various categories were presented with their trophies and winnings.
The trophies this week have been specially hand crafted for the occasion by a local artist and are made of glass inlaid with Bronze, Platinum or Gold depending on the position of the recipient (see the picture at the bottom of the page).
There is a music festival this evening here in Talloires and so there is a band setting up in the square where we held the ceremony - it will probably turn into a party....
So, here are the podium positions
Ladies first - from left to right we have Keiko Hiraki (Japan / API - Sky Asagiri) in 2nd. Current FAI World Champion Elisa Houdry (France / ABAC) in 1st place and, in her first ever XC competition [Seiko has just 'crossed over' from Acro Competitions], - 3rd place goes to Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France !!/ Les Passagers du Vent) - she's actually from Talloires....though the costume doesn't give you too many clues...
Now for the Open Podium. From left to right - Aljaz Valic (Slovenia / Mastercard - aforma - kovk ) in 2nd, Stefan Wyss (Switzerland / SPÄLTI - skywings.ch) in 1st place and Peter Frauenschuh (Austria) in 3rd.
These are the winning teams - on the left you have Team Abac/Niviuk [Elisa Houdry, Maxime Bellemin, Jean Marc Caron & Erwan Didriche] in 2nd. Centre is Team Gin [Anja Kroll - the current PWCA Womens World Champion, Aljaz Valic, Christian Tamegger and Ulrich Prinz] and on the right, in 3rd place, is team Spälti [Regula Strasser, Thomas Koster, Michael Sigel and Stefan Wyss]
The winning nation for Event 4 of the Paragliding World Cup 2009 is Switzerland - there are 12 Swiss in this week's competition (4 are missing from this photo).
As mentioned above, the trophies were specially made for this Paragliding World Cup event and are inlaid with Bronze, Platinum or Gold according to the recipient's position in the event - actually, shortly after this photo was taken, Xavier was spotted trying to 'slip' it into his pocket...!
The video reports from Philippe Broers and the Talloires Office du Tourism have been a popular addition to the website this week and we haven't quite finished with them yet. Here are the last episodes from Talloires, France. The next event is Buzet in Croatia and starts in just 21 days time - see you there.....
