John Aldridge <john> writes:

Following the decision of the 2009 CIVL Plenary it became possible
from 1st May 2009 to set FAI Continental Records in both hang gliding and
paragliding. Since that date there have been 6 FAI World Records homologated
which also appear to meet all the requirements for Continental Records which are
set out in Section 7D of the FAI Sporting Code. However only one nation (UK) has
also claimed the world record performance of its pilot as a European Continental
Record and that is the only one that appears on the FAI website at
http://records.fai.org/data?c=10  for any continent.

The remaining five homologated World Records which have not also been claimed as
Continental Records are:

Possible South American Continental Records:

Paragliders, Feminine, Straight distance of 324.7 km on 14.11.2009, Quixada, CE
(Brazil). Pilot : Kamira PEREIRA RODRIGUES (Brazil)

Paragliders, Feminine, Straight distance to a declared goal of 285.3 km on 14.
11.2009, Quixada, CE (Brazil) - Castelo Do Piaui, PI (Brazil). Pilot : Kamira
PEREIRA RODRIGUES (Brazil)

Paragliders, Feminine, Distance using up to 3 turn points of 131.5 km on 10.
11.2009, Quixada, CE (Brazil). Pilot : Kamira PEREIRA RODRIGUES (Brazil)

Possible North American Continental Record:

Hang gliders, General, Speed over a triangular course of 100 km of 49.8 km/h on
27.07.2009, Zapata, TX (USA). Pilot : Dustin MARTIN (USA)

Possible European Continental Record:

Paragliders, Feminine, Out-and-return distance of 164.6 km on 10.11.2009, Sorica
(Slovenia) - Piombada (Italy). Pilot : Nicole FEDELE (Italy)

I urge the delegates of the nations concerned to ensure that the Records
Administrator or other appropriate official in their NAC does not delay further
in sending an email to <record> to
also claim these World Records as records for their continent. World record
performances may be exceeded somewhere else in the world eventually and I hope
you agree that it would be nice if the current magnificent flight performances
could remain as records for your continent as a mark of achievement and to
inspire other pilots in your continent to fly even further or faster.

Of course, it will also be nice to see NACs submitting Continental Record claims
for flights that are the best performance in their continent even though they
are not the best in the world - that was the aim of introducing these record
categories.