WMC 2005 Diary An account of the world microlight championships, Levroux, France. By Rob Hughes, tel: +44 7977 147690 email rob@orleton.co.uk

Saturday August 27th - results day!

WORLD CHAMPIONS! Paul and Dawn Dewhurst are world champions in the two seat fixed wing class AL2
WORLD CHAMPIONS! Rob Grimwood and Chris Saysell are world champions in the two seat flexwing class WL2
WORLD SILVER! David Broom wins silver in the single seat fixed wing class AL1
WORLD SILVER! Michel Carnet wins silver in the single paramotor class PF1
WORLD BRONZE! Simon Baker and Anita Holmes win bronze in class WL2
WORLD BRONZE! Team United Kingdom win Team bronze

Today was full of activity, mostly on the part of the French team. it was noticed at a late stage that Simon and Anita
had been scored zero for a task due to the GPS flight recorder malfunctioning and not recording a trace. This actually
was not true, and after the intervention of computer expert Jose Luis Esteban his trace was found and he was awarded an extra
400 points. This was done totally in accordance with the rules, with both the French and British team leaders present and
following the decision of the Jury President, but it meant that the French Groby and Rapiteau were moved down to fourth place just hours
before the medal ceremony. That we followed the rules to the letter didn't matter one jot. The change of scores led to a near riot on the part of
the French team, who launched protest after protest and accused the entire British team, the Chief Marshall and the Flight Director of cheating.
Rapiteau acted appallingly, his wife parked their car in front of the medal stage to disrupt proceedings, their son was used as an emotional pawn after
he had been wound up so much he bawled for hours, and Rapiteau himself shouted and screamed 'cheats' for hours. His protests were heard by the
jury up until the point when he started kicking the furniture in the jury room and swiping items off the table. He was ordered to leave immediately, his
excessively childish outbursts were finally silenced.

Thankfully the anger abated soon after the medal ceremony, the few French team members who were causing all the fuss left, and the rest of the
team stayed on to mix with all the other competitors at an after-ceremony reception. This situation occurs most years, and will no doubt raise its head again
at future competitions. It was a sad blight on what had been a great competition, pilots were congratulating Rob Keene for his inventive and fun tasks
and nations came together to swap t-shirts and plan meetings for the future. This was the true microlighting spirit breaking through again, showing
that microlighters are good people, we're ready to help others, even if it means lending replacement aircraft parts to our competitors who may have
snapped something during the last spot landing. This is what microlighting is about, and it is this spirit which made for a fantastic world
championships. The next (European) championships are due to take place in Germany in 2006 - I can't wait.

Rob Hughes

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