Here, Neil describes his championship rounds this year and looks to the future.

JM: How did your Piedrahita round go?
NR: .It went fairly well, though it is Spain that cost me the Championship. I was fighting my usual rivals Craig Morgan, Mark Hayman, Wagga (Mark Watts) and Adrian, when one by one they each had a bomb day. We set tasks of around 100k and as the days went by they each landed short of goal except myself and Adrian. I lost this year.s Championship on day 3 of Spain when I got low and slow and only just squeaked into goal, 300 points off Adrian.

JM: You were second after the Spain round. This must have put you in a really positive frame of mind. Were you hoping to take the championships?
NR: .Yes, I usually mess up the flat lands round and have to make it up in the Alps. Last year I missed goal once and came from 18th to 6th in the Alps. So being in second place was very nice, knowing that I had the Alps to go into. Adrian was struggling for speed in rough skies so I thought I'd have him.

JM: How did the France round go?
NR: .Adrian arrived in the Alps with several new prototypes and Bruce Goldsmith to help adjust and trim these incredible 8.5 aspect ratio wings. Looking at my beautiful but old Icepeak, realising it's 2 years old and in need of a line change (so it's well out of best trim) I had to wonder! The other top guys had brand new protos too, so I must admit, I had my work cut out. However, on Task 1 we all raced to take the first turn point! Finding ourselves low and in rough rotor, it was grit your teeth and fight, luckily everybody peeled away while I fought on. They bombed and I got out! From there onwards there was nobody within 500 points of me so the tussle was between myself and Adrian. He simply marked me in the sky. Exactly what I'd have done! We both always made goal so there was no way of making up those 300 points I'd lost in Spain..

JM: Was this your highest place in the Champs so far?
NR: .Yes, it's a running joke that I always end up as number 5, practically every year during this entire decade! So No.2 is good, though I'd prefer No.1..

JM: What are your plans for next year? Are you hoping to compete in the PWC?
NR: .I now have the highest qualification letters you can achieve for PWC.... I have AA! But I still disapprove of the PWC scoring system. They only encourage head banging speed bar pushers and eliminate any tasks that were technical and difficult. To me paragliding is handling all conditions. This year in the Brazil PWC on the last day after 4 tasks I was 15th, they got one head banging day so eliminated all the others. That.s not paragliding! There's a chance I could make the British team for the European Championships in Austria. A lot has to do with my sponsors and how the next wings developed. I am quite capable of winning the British Championships and if this helps sell wings I am happy to do it. There are talks regarding a 4 nations competition, UK, France, Germany and Spain! That would be interesting as I like team events where we all work for greater

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Article reproduced from the LMSC Flyer in the Summer 2009 (2)

Author : Judith Mole : www.judithmole.net