First, what was up with Manfred? Did he just make a mistake? Did he risk it all by not playing it safe?

First, Alex Ploner won the World Championship fair and square by being in a position to move ahead of Manfred if Manfred made any mistakes. He was 200 points behind Manfred in second place. And after all, winning in a hang gliding contest means essentially making less mistakes than the other guys. Many other pilots would have had to rely on a number of other pilots making mistakes on the last day in order to win.

At sixteen minutes before the start window opened at 2:30 PM on the last day Manfred was at cloud base eight kilometers west southwest of the Chabre launch along with me and forty or fifty other pilots also at cloud base, 8,500'+. This was the last cloud to the west of launch until the next cloud twelve kilometers away to the west at Col de Perty, which was inside the entry start circle.

Manfred left this cloud, cloud base, and the rest of the pilots in the competition and headed for Col de Perty. He found lift there, but late, six minutes before the start window open, and low, down to 5,000'. He climbed to 7,000', well below us, and still inside the exit start circle.

After climbing he had to get outside the start circle and didn't do so until six minutes after it opened, giving himself quite a handicap (in addition to being relatively low), and having to fly either alone or with only another pilot or two.

He found another thermal fifteen minutes after the start gate opened at climbed to 7,700' on his way to the first turnpoint, but he was still 1,000' below the altitude that we started out with.

He came in low at 4,000' at Col des Tourette on the ridge that included our turnpoint and center of the start circle at Bonnet Rouge and didn't find any lift. He circling a bit in the valley before the ridge and landed.

I spoke very briefly with Manfred after his flight. No real answer to why he didn't play it safe and stay with the main group of pilots at the "last" cloud waiting for the start gate to open while hanging at cloud base. He indicated various answers: that he just made a mistake, that maybe he wasn't really interested in playing it safe and winning that way, that he was going for the better position to the west so that he would have less of a head wind component going to the first turnpoint, but that it didn't work out.

Manfred is obviously a truly exceptional pilot and making a mistake just makes him appear slightly human. Everyone understand how great he is as a pilot.

Alex Ploner is a true friend to all, and obviously very gifted also. He deserves to win the World Championship and with a little luck and a more consistent run than Manfred, he did so, without ever winning any particular day.