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After two very disappointing seasons in 2011 and 2012, I started to doubt if I had what it takes to be in the top. Although I had some good individual tasks, I couldn't keep it together for a full comp. After a lot of thinking and discussions with fellow pilots, I realized that I had to improve in three things which I applied in the Colombian Championships 2013.
1. Discipline: At the Pre PWC South Africa I messed up my chances of getting a good result because of a stupid GPS mistake. I have also seen how a simple knot on the lines can mess up your task day, so every detail matters!! I started to get into the habit of eating well, getting proper rest, avoiding any kind of stress, taking time to prepare the equipment and paying more attention at the briefings.
2. Equipment: Except for the South African Pre PWC, I was never flying the latest gliders in the market, which made it very hard for me to keep up with the leaders in terms of speed and glide. Luckily my friend Mark Watts was aware of this and was kind enough to let me compete in the Colombian Open with his Ozone Enzo.
3. Control: Nowadays you need to stick with the gaggle and learn how to 'Control' it to your advantage and attack in the last third of the task . My strategy was to play my strengths by climbing better than the others positioning myself on top of the gaggle, for me climbing fast is as important as gliding fast. Is also important to be fully aware of what the others are doing, what the weather is doing and what can I do to position myself better at certain points during the race.
Before the start of the comp , I was fully aware that the level in Colombia had increased dramatically, especially Julian Carreno and Steban Novoa who showed some real balls at the previous Colombian Open. On top of that we had some Amazing pilots coming from Europe and USA to warm up for the Superfinal. As I was aware of the high level of this comp, my aim was to squish in the top 10. I had two proper days to train in which I covered most of the taskable area of the valley.
The first task we saw proper racing conditions with some tricky bits, I fell behind in the first half of the task but managed to catch up with the leaders and arrive in the 8th position.
The second day was a 104 km task with very weak conditions, only the leading gaggle of about 15 pilots made it to goal , including myself in 5th position.
In the third task we were challenged with a 80 km task in tricky conditions, I arrived 6th and climbed to second overall by this point I realized that with some consistence I could be winning the comp.
The fourth task was a 53 km task in fairly good conditions, this time I flew by myself quite a bit and managed to arrive second in goal and positioned myself on top of the overall results :)
Task 5 was the longest with 117 challenging kilometers, I started really well but made a wrong move and fell behind the leaders by up to 15 kilometers, as the conditions were decreasing, I decided to fly conservatively and somehow I managed to catch up with the leaders and although the conditions were shutting down, we managed to catch a very scary fire thermal that helped us to get to goal.
Task 6 was just 69 km in perfect conditions, It ran so smoothly that I don't remember much of it, I arrived 5th and my closest contenders Julian and Bernardo arrived before, narrowing the gap of the top 3 spots overall.
Day 7 was really stressful and emotional for me as I had to defend my place for one more day and the weather conditions were uncertain. Eventually they set a task of 45 km almost impossible for such a day. I mostly flew with my closest contenders trying to keep control and it worked until wind became a factor and I got grounded as my contenders flew away 10 km further. Luckily it was such a crappy task that it wasn't worth much, so I still had a chance.
At the end Julian Carreno, Jaques Fournier and I ended up with the same amount of points, sharing the first place and making history. This also meant that Julian and I became Colombian Champions. It was great to share the title with him as we started to compete at the same time and ever since we have been good friends and rivals.
Hopefully this new season will bring some interesting flights and hopefully good results. At the moment my plan is to attend the PWC events in France, Serbia and Turkey.
