Four category winners announced at 2023 FAI World Championships for Space Models
After two days of competition at the 2023 FAI World Championships for Space Models (Monday 3 and Tuesday 4 July), the Junior and Senior results were announced in the following categories:
- Parachute Duration (S3)
- Rocket Boost Glider Duration (S4)
- Helicopter Duration (S9)
- Streamer Duration (S6)
Find out about the details for each class here.
Launch time!
Parachute Detention (S3)
In Parachute Detention (S3) the Spanish team are in the top spot in both junior and senior groups.
Keith Vinyard of USA gained a gold, followed by Zhiyong Zhang of the People’s Republic of China with silver and Poland’s Bartłomiej Tokarczyk. Of the ten female competitors, Spain’s Rosa Calvo Padros took the gold medal. Spanish juniors took gold (Javier Hernandez Alvarez) and silver (Joana de Mariano Pastor) medals with Chinese competitor ShengYang Feng gaining bronze. Joana de Mariano Pastor topped the women’s category.
Junior contestants from the People's Republic of China
Rocket Boost Glider Duration (S4)
The Chinese team had major successes in Rocket Boost Glider Duration (S4), with a gold for both the senior and junior team: Sun Hongxiang took top spot among the seniors and there were silver and bronze medals for Xiaoyu Yang and Yinghao Xu respectively in the juniors, yet it was Denys Mozok of Ukraine who took junior gold. Silver among the seniors was taken by former FAI Aeromodelling Scholarship medallist Michal Žitňan of Slovakia who beat Rosa Calvo Padros by just seven points.
With the female juniors, the top three spots were won by Team CHN: Xiaoyu Yang, Haoran Li and Meiyuan Xu will all be awarded their medals on Wednesday’s awards ceremony. Spain’s Rosa Calvo Padros also competed and took top senior female spot ahead of Estonia’s Merili Tursk and Slovakia’s Ema Čižnárová.
Streamer Duration (S6)
The People’s Republic of China team also performed well in the junior Streamer Duration (S6), gaining the top position. USA were top senior team, followed by Slovakia and Poland.
It was great to see three females in the top junior individuals: USA’s Camille Harris topped the podium, followed by Chinese competitors JinYu Cheng and Meiyuan Xu.
Among the seniors, Keith Vinyard of USA won gold, followed by Sławomir Łasocha of Poland and Kevin Kuczek of USA. Slovakia’s Ema Čižnárová came eighth overall and gained a gold among the 12 female participants, with USA’s Ashley Van Milligan in silver and Latvia’s Austra Pumpure in bronze.
A future space modeller watches the show
Helicopter Duration (S9)
In Helicopter Duration (S9), Poland topped the seniors and Romania the juniors. Mihailo Petrović of Serbia stormed ahead of Italy’s Antonio Mazzaracchio who narrowly beat USA’s Sally Vinyard who took top female spot among the 12 women. With the juniors, it was People’s Republic of China’s Jiaqi Dong who received the gold, followed by Nikola Ivanovski of Romania and Mikus Tucs from Latvia. Nikola’s team mate Andra Ileana Mihailescu came fourth and topped the women’s contest, ahead of Hannah Wu from USA who came fifth overall. Ukraine’s Sofiia Fisun came sixth overall, and took bronze among the women who numbered six in total.
The awards ceremony for these categories will take place on Wednesday evening.
Final checks before launch
Next competition events
In total nine classes for each age category are scheduled, and for each class three rounds are scheduled with up to two fly-off rounds in case of requirements. Wednesday will see the schedule continue with Altitude (S1A single stage for Juniors, S1B two stage for Seniors) and Radio Control Rocket Glider (S8D for Juniors, S8P for Seniors), with Thursday Friday completing the contest days for Scale Altitude (S5B for Juniors, S5C for Seniors) and Scale (S7). Finally the S2/P will complete this year’s competition.
Photo credits: Antonis Papadopoulos, FAI Aeromodelling Commission (CIAM) President and Jury Member
