In 2022, France entered pilots into the 21st FAI European Championships in Lithuania, the 37th FAI World Championships in Hungary, The 12th FAI Junior World Championships in the Czech Republic and the 11th FAI Women's World Championships in Great Britain. In the Women’s world gliding competitions in 2022, the French team took a silver, topping this with a team cup gold at the World Championships.
World championships are of course a highlight of the calendar for competitors and their entourage, but it is not commonplace to have many visitors from outside the gliding or air sports community. When bidding for the UK to host the 11th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships, pilot Liz Sparrow and her team of passionate volunteers wanted to shake things up and use the opportunity to showcase gliding and air sports to a wider audience.
Thirty-three-year-old Elena Fergnani has been flying since the age of 14. After three years she entered her first competition in a dual seater aircraft before quickly progressing to single seat competition. She became club class women’s world champion in Australia in 2020.
It's only a few months to go and the 11th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championship preparations are racing ahead... Gliding would be nothing without the amazing and supportive international community. Glider pilots from all around the world helped raise funds to allow two Ukrainian pilots to compete. The organising team has members from all over the UK working hard to make WWGC2022 a special event, and they have volunteers from as far afield as New Zealand coming along to help out at the championships.
