It was the WGC of the former world champions!!!
Those former World champions, did it again.
First of all Sebastian in 15 m. class . I think nobody doubted his next title in his home country. I lost track of how many he has now. Definitely the best pilot in the world seen over ALL times, certainly when you look at the amount of WORLD -titles. I counted 7 now, since 2003!!!! Amazing!!!!!
On top of that he won 3 World Grand Prix Gliding Championships!!!!!He also was runner up in Sisteron this year.

Sebastian, very relaxed, is WORLD CHAMPION in his own POLAND.
His daughter is AS happy and PROUD!!!!
As shared by Pilotessa Design-com

A few less but, still many is the result for Michael Sommer in open class in his EB 29. In the beginning those long-wing- pilots did not too well. I was a bit amazed , had confidence however in the quality of the pilots and in the end they showed the efficiency of long wings combined with top pilots.
Michael was on the first 3 days on a daily spot 11, 17 and 10 . And then it started; spot 3 , 1, 5 , 3, 4, 1 and 1.
I felt a bit sorry for Andy as he did SO well in his JS 1-C. On day 9 he had only 11 points left in the overall scores on runner up Michael but the difference on day 10, the last day was in favor of Michael [632 daily points for Michael, 568 for Andy] who showed his quality and fighter-instinct in winning the last crucial 2 days.Andy was world champion in Leszno in 2003 in standard class and in 1993 in Borlange also in st. class.

Relaxed as well; Michael Sommer…..his 4th or 5th [??] world title!!Lost track here as well.
As shared by Pilotessa Design-com

It was for Karol a nail-biting last day!!! He and his mate Lucasz were on a cumulative spot 1 and 2 for nearly the whole competition period.But John Coutts from New Zealand and living in South Africa tried hard to get on the highest spot or in the middle…..and did so! On the very last day Karol and Lucasz were on a daily spot 32 and 33 [from 45]  , helping each other , ” not really”  to stay in the top.John was on spot 10 and the former world champion in 15 m. class IN Leszno in 2003 John,  was now runner up.

Karol,  Coutssie and Lucasz with a new generation glider pilots in his arm.

Here the epilog of the Leszno WGC.

As shared by Katrin; Pilotessa Design-com

First THE WINNERS of day 8 [August 7] as I did not show them yet;

Friday 08-08-2014 one but last day;Soaring day 9.
A front had passed with some rain and a new day was about to begin. 5/8 of cu’s, blue ” holes”   and “maybe” rain again in the evening.
Tasks were set;361 km. for 15 m. 350 for 18 m. and 398.8 km. in open class.
15 m. class;
1000 points in this class for USA winner David Mockler, with as runner up Thomas Gostner and as 3d Wolfgang Janowitsch.
David started early at 14.03 and flew with a speed of 116.2 km./h. Thomas left at 14.28 and flew with a speed of 115 km.No out-landings, but 1 one day-disqualification.

18 m. class;
A great day for the UK pilots;  Russell 1 [speed 124 km./h. and 929 points] and Mike,  2 and for Attie and Uys being 3 and 4.
45 Pilots finished!

open class ;
1000 points in this class for Michael Sommer who won again, with a speed of 124.7 km./h.followed by the 2 French and 2 UK pilots.
All 35 pilots finished and points were between 531 and 1000.
A day with mass landings but on such a HUGE field….. that’s no problem.

Winners of day 8 as shared by the organizers.

AUGUST 9 2014 LAST DAY OF THE LESZNO WGC.

Another difficult day, with tasks from 253.8 km. for 15 m., 245.3 for 18 m. and 262 for open.They had an A , a B and in the end a C task.
Open went from 418 to 262,18 m. from 397 245 and 15 m. from 378 to 353.8 km.
For the end of the afternoon a front from the W.was fore-casted and that arrived already at 3.
They started in the blue , with not a lot of lift and  temperatures over 32 dgr. . Launches started at 12.40,and due to the changes in tasks the start-lines were open rather late.
Luckily the front-clouds evaporated and some pilots had 2 m. lift up to 2000 m.The wind to come home was pretty tough.
When they put the gliders for the last time back in the trailers they had some light rain.

This is what happened;
In 15 m. Sebastian was far enough ahead to fly the task relaxed!The first 3 behind him, Jean Denis, Gintas and Wolfgang,  all of them had still chances.
Wolfgang and his Austrian mate Andreas won both again the last day with 856 and 853 points. They both started rather late at 14.32, whilst others were on their way around 2.
Sebastian finished as 6, so another WORLD TITLE in the pocket.
Jean Denis lost about 200 points on the winner finishing on spot 23 and Gintas flew off with the French and finished with them.
I don’t have to tell you what this did to the final scores.
Sebastian is the new WORLD CHAMPION!!!! Congratulations!!!!
On spot 2 and coming from 4 is Wolfgang. GOOD ON HIM.Jean Denis dropped to 3 and Gintas to 4. Stefano Ghiorzo had a good consistent run  and finished on spot 5 whilst Mac was on a good spot 6.
6 Pilots out-landed, some straight after the start others flew over 200 km.

In 18 m. class excitement as well.Over the last 5 days the best overall scores were for Karol, Lucasz, John, Russell and Peter Hartmann .Points between 6519 on spot 5 and 6746 for the topper.
Uys won the day followed by the Italian pilots Ricardo and Davide.
As said the day was n’t too good for the 2 Polish pilots, but,…Karol kept his first place[7246]  and is the new WORLD CHAMPION in 18 m. class in ASG 29.
See how close the scores were; John on 2 with 7239 so SEVEN points less …..ONE curve too much on one of those days!!!!
Lucasz finished on spot 3 with 7163 points and Russell had 7154 points, Uys, winning the last day climbed to spot 5 from 7 and had as Peter both 7110.

In open class it was MOST EXCITING!!!!
On the last day the pilots started as follows; Andy on spot 1, Michael on 2, Killian on 3, Uli on 4.
Difference in scores; Uli 6747 and Andy 6884.
The German team put ALL THEIR MONEY on Michael so he was supported by his team in the other classes and Uli in his own class, his family [his dad arrived as well] and the ground crew Walter Eisele and Reinhard Schramme.
It helped!He won the last day,” got ” 632 points for that and Andy who was 2d 568.Andy started 7 minutes earlier but finished at the same time as Michael .Speed Michael…126 km./h. from Andy 119 km./h.
Michael won with a total of 7505 points whilst Andy had 7452 and Killian 7333 whilst Uli had 7300 points.

Here is the last day seen through the eyes of Tom Claffey in 18 m. finishing on an overall spot 26;
––” Last day, “interesting” weather, and weather forecast. Warm front approaching from the West, late start for thermals, strong winds, etc. very difficult to climb to altitude with thermals breaking up at 5000′ with cloud base 6000′.
I was below the gaggle near the start line unable to get right up as they started. A little while later Ben and I fell into a better thermal that got him quickly to cloud base and he found wave. I was at last able to climb as well and followed him up. Too late to call the others as they were well along track and it was getting late. Started at 7500′ and turned only once on the first leg, catching the Polish gaggle after the turn and had a great run until getting lowish at the final turn. We all struggled here and the two Poles got a final glide but we had to take weak lift at 25km under the warm front. We had started 16 mins after them and finished 7 and about ten behind.
The results were not so good as early starters did better but it was a satisfying day, one decent climb at the end and it would have been one/two! The three gliders circling under us when we were in the wave came last and two outlanded, showing the importance of start times.
Overall not wonderful placings but lots of lessons learnt by a young team, with our kind of weather we know we can do it. [As you know the next worlds are in Benalla Australia]
At least I had the satisfaction of a day win. ( one of these days I will get 1000 points!)—” 

The last finishes as seen by Frans;

   

and some more pictures from Frans, crew from Francois [PT] who finished as number 9 in 15 m. class.

   

Jonkers did well. Having 5 pilots in their gliders in the top 9 is TOP!!! Here they are;

John  [2d spot] ,Andy Davis [2d] ,Kilian [3d] and Lucasz [3]
As Sven Olivier said; ” 4 out of 6 – of same glider – that must be a record for any manufacturer!” 

THE CHAMPIONS:

The heroes from the 15 m. class as seen by the Aussies.

The heroes from 18 m., as shared by the Aussies.

The open class heroes as shared by the Aussies.

I guess that’s all the news from Leszno. Not to forget …

The TEAM CLASSIFICATION
1. the UK
2. Germany
3. France

AND great that Poland has 2 WORLD CHAMPIONS. JUST SO GOOD!!!!!!
I know their TC is a topper as well!

GREAT WGC pilots, ALL of them and I still feel sorry for Gyorgy Gulyas [Hungary] and his crew, avoiding a dog cost them the car [ total loss] , a trailer [ can be repaired]  and a couple of days on which Gyorgy could not fly. He was  the WGC champion in Luesse in 2008 in 15 m..!!!!

Carol Clifford invited the 3 new world champions and their partners for the Helli Lasch Challenge in South Africa.On invitation only and all expenses paid for.

As always ,….the day of the prize giving showed the REAL LESZNO weather. A pity.

Cheers Ritz and to finish a beautiful picture by USA pilot Pete Alexander and from Studio Jacek Lewinsky.