It has been described as a marathon: potentially 12 days of racing over two weeks to decide gliding's 2020 women's world champions.
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On Friday the 10th FAI Women's World Gliding Championships will commence at the Lake Keepit Soaring Club. It is the first time the club has hosted a world championships, which finish on January 18.
Forty-eight competitors from 10 countries, including nine Australians, will compete in three classes: 18 metre, standard and club.
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Most of the pilots have already arrived in the region and have been practicing for several days.
The event's spokesman, Sean Young, said the "tyranny of distance" meant that fewer countries than usual had sent representatives to the championships. However, he said the sport's leading countries - such as Germany, Poland and France - would compete.
Germany "is often the biggest and the best", he said, adding: "They invented and developed the sport and they have the most pilots in the world, and many of the gliders were made in Germany."
The weather at the moment is ideal for racing, with an abundance of hot rising air, or thermals. Wind is also being generated off the hills in the area.
If these conditions continue throughout the championships, gliders will climb to 3,000m or higher as pilots race around a course that is usually triangular in shape or shaped like a cat's cradle.
The maximum number of racing days is 12 (poor weather could impact on that figure). Whoever has the most points in each class at the end of the championships is the winner.
Young said: "Australia has a great lineup of pilots ... So we're very hopeful that Australia will do well.
Conditions at the moment are very good.
- Sean Young
"But we're also just hopeful that it will be a good competition, especially with the extraordinary weather that we've been having. Conditions at the moment are very good."
Young described the championships as a "long-distance, marathon-type competition".
