German pilot overall paragliding champion
Lalit Mohan
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, October 20
The Pre-World Paragliding Championship ended at Bir-Billing today
with Andreas Malecki of Germany emerging as the overall champion. He
was given a cash award of Rs 1 lakh by Chief Minister Prem Kumar
Dhumal, who was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony.

In the overall category, Torsten Seigel of Germany finished second,
while Miha Razinger of Slovenia stood third.

Dhumal said Bir-Billing would be developed from tourism point of
view. There was a plan to set a tourist reception centre and improve
public facilities here. An amount of Rs 4.28 crore had been
sanctioned for this purpose by the Union Ministry of Tourism under
the "Destination Bir-Billing, Jogindernagar" programme.

"The state has tremendous potential for carrying out tourism-related
activities like paragliding, trekking, mountaineering, mountain
biking, river rafting etc. Bir-Billing has proved its potential for
paragliding among other adventure tourism activities. The day is not
far when we will organise Paragliding World Cup here. Efforts in that
regard will be made," he said. He congratulated the winners and
participants.

Other results: Indian category: Ajay Sharma 1, Debu Chaudhary 2, Adie
Kumar 3; women category: Svetlana Piskaseva 1, Elena Dmitrievskaya
(Russia) 2, Zdenka Kuntova (Czech Republic) 3; team category: 50-50
team 1, TB and SD team 2, Russian team 3; serial category: Robinson
Jullian (Britain) 1, Svetlana Piskareya (Russia) 2, Dmitry Chernyak
(Russia) 3.

In all, 82 pilots, including 12 women, participated in the event.
Dhumal also honoured the five guest paragliders from Pakistan. The
delegation was led by Syeed Sajjad Shah. Other members included
Wajahat Malik, A.B.M. Faisal, Farookh Haroon and Farman Ahmed.