With bad weather looming, competitors at the 23rd FAI European Hot Air Balloon Championship 2025 knew they’d get one more long flight in before the rain, with precious points up for grabs.

Flight Eight: Tasks 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34

It’s been a gruelling few days in Wieselburg, Austria as excellent weather gave the 82 competitors the opportunity to capture a massive number of points. The eighth flight brought six more tasks; a potential for 6000 more points. The competitors have put on such a wondrous display, that it’s been the exceptional results propelling pilots ahead rather than poor results pushing pilots away. Mistakes, small as they may be, are overmagnified by the scoring system.

Two pilots are standing out at the top of the standings with Stefan Zeberli (SUI) and Dominic Bareford (GBR) respectively appearing near the top of the results at nearly each task. Of course, it is not the first time they’ve been at the top. At the 23rd FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship up the road in Gross Siegharts, Austria in 2018, it was the Brit who finished on top with the Swiss in second. At the following FAI World Championship in Murska Sobota, Slovenia in 2022, Zeberli sat atop the podium with Bareford in fifth.

Dominic Bareford (GBR) flies towards the next target on flight six. Credit: Agata Dominguez

Six tasks for a morning flight with grey skies promised a nice mix of tasks, once again asking competitors to show the full range of their skills. After finding their launch site, they needed to time their launch and approach into the first task, a Calculated Rate of Approach Task (CRAT), which they experienced during the very first flight. Three Austrian pilots got closest with top points for Michael Abel (AUT), Werner Schrank (AUT) and Thomas Kindermann-Schoen (AUT).

The balloons followed each other to the JDG which came next and 35 balloonists were able to score using their favourite scoring method, a gravity drop, within the Marker Measuring Area (MMA). Vytas Kerdokas (LTU) won it with 1.83m, good for a third task win which is tied for first place with three other pilots. The Hesitation Waltz (HWZ) was next with two crosses to pick from and Marc Lhotellier (FRA) became the fourth French pilot to win a task with 1.97m, much to the delight of the French team that prides itself on the collective and individual results.

From there, the flight switched to three dimensional tasks which could be flown in any order, though their presentation started with an Elbow (ELB) where pilots had to make the biggest angle possible in a maximum of 28 minutes. While many pilots were able to get excellent results at around 60o, Bastian Schwarz (GER) managed to find winds taking him 100o from the initial direction for a 260 point advantage over anyone else.

Next, on the task sheet was a Fly On (FON) at altitude. Results were so strong that Zeberli’s 87m was only worth 527 points. That did some work to close the gap as Bareford’s 21m gave him 908 points.

Stefan Zeberli (SUI) on 17 Aug 2025

The end was in sight as the 3D Shape Task (3DT) came into view. Another cylinder with no altitude settings but a 1km band in which points could be collected until 9am. Przemyslaw Moscicki (POL) did the most sight-seeing with an 8,307 m result followed by David Strasmann (SUI) at 8,097 m. The three Austrians who started the day with the three best results on the CRAT placed 3, 4 and 5 on the last task of the day.

When all the points were tallied, Zeberli’s lead over Bareford became 288 points, an extremely tight situation after 34 tasks. The next competitor is nearly 2000 points behind.

As forecasted, the bad weather rolled in, giving the valiant competitors a reprieve. But the event is not over: two possible flights on Friday stand in the way of crowning the European hot air balloon champion.

Follow the action

Top skills will be on display all week in Wieselburg. FAI will provide extensive coverage of the Championship with regular updates on its website, Facebook, and Instagram.

• Tracking and results
• FAI Facebook
• FAI Instagram
• FAI event minisite
• Organiser's website
• FAI Flickr album

Be an International Ballooning Ambassador and share news, reels and posts for this event. Here's how:

1. Follow, Like & Share posts and reels from Facebook and Instagram
2. Use the hashtags: 
   #airsports #FAIballooning
   #ballooningeuropeans2025
    #ehabc2025
   #hotairballooning

Header image credit: Florian Auer

Balloons on flight eight. Credit: Viviane Morelle