Luke Beresford flew the local flag high as the 2023 Manilla XC camp wrapped up on the weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Flying his Advance Sigma 11, Beresford took the honours in the Sports class, and also finished third in the overall standings behind Sydney pilot Magdy Malik, with a total of 430km.
Malik flew 686km all up in his Advance Xalps 3, almost 200km further than runner-up Joshie Tie (486km), and won two of the days including the final day with 152km.
READ ALSO:
Tie was meanwhile the best in the XC class.
The Fun class was a race right to the end, Queensland's Dan Goddard prevailing on 164km.
In the women's international pilots filled the top three with German pilot Anna Pruem taking first place with 148km from Coralie Werbrouck (France) on 111km and Kyla Macdonald (New Zealand) on 86km.
![Pilots make for a patchwork of colour as they take to the skies for the final day. Picture Manilla Paragliding Pilots make for a patchwork of colour as they take to the skies for the final day. Picture Manilla Paragliding](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ingYyB85ps4jmG9t8mfsHP/c135dea1-d65b-4e34-aa55-6a06a6fb5694.jpg/r0_0_2048_1536_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The first time the camp has been held for three years, the only negative really was the weather.
After near perfect conditions for flying in the lead-up to the camp and good conditions for the first day, only four of the eight days were suitable for flying and the stormy weather around early and late in the week reduced the capacity to fly big distances.
Still more than a third of the field achieved personal best distances.
The final day saw pilots head north towards Bingara, with climbs to 3000m and regular clouds making flying fun and easy, albeit a little more sedate than previous days due to the lack of a strong tailwind.
Tie was second behind Malik, the Sunshine Coast pilot flying his Flow XC Racer 139km to just pip New Zealand's Ben Braithwaite (138km) in his Phi Allegro Light.