Congratulations to everyone for a great competition. Thank you especially to the many volunteers that have made this event possible. It has been my greatest pleasure to be a part of the large team that has done such a wonderful job. Most of us, maybe all of us, had no idea what we were getting into. In spite of that, you volunteers have all done a terrific job and have made me proud to be a part of the team. Thank you.

A special thank you to John Good, our Deputy Director. John and I worked together closely as a team throughout the competition and John was responsible for tasking.

Thanks to our chief steward Dick Bradley for all your help. Dick came last year as well and helped me tremendously this year by providing sage advice on many matters.

Al Tyler has already sung the praises of the Uvalde town people, but I can’t close without saying that this is absolutely the most soaring-friendly town I have ever known.

Now for some interesting statistics: I believe that the winning scores of this championships are more points than have ever been earned at a glider competition. The second highest scores were earned here at Uvalde in 1991. You pilots flew 13 competition days. Many of you also flew 7 official practice days. Some of you started flying here well before that. About halfway through the competition I mentioned that the total km flown took us the distance from the earth to the moon. You’ll be glad to know that we didn’t leave you hanging out there in low earth orbit. The total distance flown including the official practice period was almost 800,000 km, more than the distance to the moon and back.

Thank you for coming. Maybe, we’ll see some of you back here in less than another 20 years.

Ken Sorenson – Championship Director