Champion Adds To His Collection Of Gold Medals

The 10th World Air Sports Federation (FAI) World Canopy Piloting Championships & 4th FAI World Canopy Piloting Freestyle in Pretoria, South Africa, during the last week of September featured an intense competition and challenging weather.

But USA’s Curt Bartholemew’s superior skills in Accuracy, Speed, and Distance earned him the top spot on the podium overall to garner another gold medal.

The vice-champion was Abdulbari Quabasi of UAE for his results in the Accuracy segment, and taking the bronze was Argentina’s Marcos Darman.

Bartholemew has won numerous world champion titles throughout his career, and he also took the silver in the 4th FAI Freestyle competition while his teammate Justin Price claimed the gold. Spain’s Pablo Hernandez Moll took the bronze medal.

Bartholemew said in an Instagram post, “It was a crazy roller coaster of a competition. My flying was really strong… I had one major hiccup in Distance with one of the best saves of my career… I won silver in each individual event, some by the closest margins I’ve ever seen. I kept my head down and focused on winning the championships. Congrats to each of the podium finishers...”

The UAE won the overall national championship out of the 19 countries competing, finishing ahead of France and Australia in the Canopy Piloting Championship. The winning nation in the Canopy Piloting Freestyle Championship was the USA, followed by Australia and Canada.

FMI:  www.fai.org/