The beggining of the championship was postponed due to the weather. The Jury president Andy Cowley reported from Prilep: "Unfortunately for the competition pilots, much of North Macedonia and in particular the competition flying sites near Prilep, have been badly affected by a large, very slow-moving inclement weather system currently sitting over the Balkans that has resulted in cold, rainy conditions. As a consequence, competition flying has not yet commenced and everyone is sitting in their warm clothing praying for improved conditions. Making best use of their time, the judges have been practicing indoors, ensuring that they are ready to go and able set up their equipment on-site at a moment's notice should a favourable weather window become available. In the meantime, a film about the life of Tomas Lednik has been shown for the competition pilots' entertainment in the HQ hotel's conference room".

But luckily after 3 days of wind, rain, and clouds the sky administration finally got mercy... on the fourth day a short window permitting flights was open and the first round began. Unfortunately, only 48 of the 129 competitors got the opportunity to fly and achieve a score from a hill site in Krushevo, because a thunderstorm with torrential rain stopped proceedings. This meant the round had to be suspended pending a return to the event. On the fifth competition day, however, the conditions favoured a winch launch. So the take-off was changed from Krushevo to Prilep Airfield. This is how the first fully scored round of the PGA Worlds turned out to be round No 2. Round 1 is still to be flown from the original take-off when possible.

The first in Overall in the second round were 4 pilots all getting zeros:  Vlastimil Vachtl (Czech Republic),  Seungil Ahn (South Korea), Aleksandr Nosal (NAC of Russia),  Dagyeom Lee (South Korea). The further results are not less remarkable - 29 pilots landed within the 3 cm radius. And 50% of participants landed within the 10 cm range. It demonstrates the highest level of pilots that came to compete in this competition and we expect a fascinating rivalry both in overall and teams results. The best teams for round 2 are South Korea, NAC of Russia, and Czech Republic. Best Female pilots: Dagyeom Lee (South Korea) with 0 cm and  Lorina Haxhiaj (Albania), Juliana Noscue Patino (Colombia) and  Soyoung Cho (a Defending World Champion from South Korea)  with 2 cm each.

It is interesting to note that newbies in the PGA Worlds Team of Spain and Cuba are doing quite well having 11th and 22d positions in the Team ranking. We will review their participation. And we will keep a close eye on the actions of Slovenia which team includes Matjaz Sluga - a PGA World record-breaker. 

Round 3 also began today but was not finished. Tomorrow hopefully the championship will be able to continue with round 3. Stay tuned.

All results can be found on this page

Competition website on fai.org: https://www.fai.org/CIVL-Prilep2021