James Nugent from country Victoria beat the best glider pilots in the world from 21 nations to win the first World Gliding Championship title for Australia since 1991.
James, 25 years old, is also one of the youngest pilots to ever win a senior World Gliding Championship. After a marathon 11 racing days across the Central West of New South Wales, James secured his World Gliding Championship in Club Class, defeating the previous champion from Germany and numerous other previous winners.
Silver Medal for Australian Greg Beecroft
Greg Beecroft from Western Australia won the Silver Medal in Standard Class.
In a stunning result Greg Beecroft, in his first international contest, defeated the previous champion, also from Germany, to take the Silver Medal in Standard Class.
Australian Team Takes 3rd Place
Australia fielded six pilots in three classes of racing. The aggregate scores of all the pilots competing in 11 days of glider racing produced a total score for each country. In the best result ever for Australia, the team took 3rd place on the Team Podium behind Germany and Poland.
Australian Team Captain, Miles Gore-Brown, said, ‘This is an amazing result for Australia, showing the world that we are capable of competing at the highest level of the sport with James Nugent as the new World Champion showing that gliding in Australia has a great future in the hands of our young up and coming pilots.”
Australian Gliding Team
James Nugent, Victoria, Gold Medal, World Gliding Champion in Club Class
Daniel Summers, Victoria, 11th place in Club Class
Greg Beecroft, WA, Silver Medal in Standard Class
Bruce Taylor, NSW, 18th in Standard Class
Adam Woolley, Queensland, 7th in 15m Class
Tobi Geiger, Victoria, 10th in 15m Class
Miles Gore-Brown, Manager
Peter Temple, Coach
ABOUT
The 37th FAI World Gliding Championships was held in Narromine, New South Wales, 2 – 16 December 2023. Eighty competitors from 21 nations competed in the greatest gliding event in the world.
The competition saw 80 high performance gliders racing over central NSW for periods of up to 7 hours, covering distances up to 600km. The winners of each race accumulated points. The pilots with the highest point score at the end of the competition were declared World Champions in three classes of racing.
Narromine
With the support of Destination New South Wales, Narromine hosted hundreds of pilots and their crews in a major boost to the local and regional economy. After several years of preparation for this prestigious event, the people of Narrominshire and hosts at Narromine Gliding Club staged a superbly organised, safe and friendly championships.
Gliding Australia
This event was supported by Gliding Australia, the peak sporting body, under the auspices of the FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale) which is the worldwide body for sport aviation.
Gliding The sport of gliding is an exhilarating, spectacular and serene flying experience. Gliders take to the air like birds with wings outstretched, soaring on rising air currents, immersed in three dimensional space and flying silently with an eagle’s view of the world.
Men and women of all ages can learn to fly gliders. In Australia you can fly solo from the age of 15 and some pilots continue gliding into their eighties. It is never too late to learn to glide and many pilots take up the sport in their 40s, 50s or even 70s.
The modern glider is a sophisticated, highly aerodynamic aircraft without an engine, designed to travel at speeds approaching 300 kph and capable of heights in excess of 20,000 feet.
