The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, received an official trophy on 30 September 2016 to mark her involvement with this year’s Coupe Aéronautique Gordon Bennett.

Merkel was patron of the prestigious gas balloon race this year, which saw 24 balloons launch from Gladbeck, northwest Germany earlier in September.

Merkel was given the trophy by president of the Deutscher Aero-Club Landesverband NRW, Stefan Klett, in a short ceremony held in the German state parliament.

Giving her the trophy, Klett explained the results of the balloon race and told the German chancellor who had won. This year saw defending champions Kurt Frieden and Pascal Witprächtiger from Switzerland fly from Germany to Greece to win the competition, a total distance of 1,803.4km. The pair spent 58 hours in the air.

As official patron of the competition Merkel had previously sent her best wishes to all the participants in the race before they set off.