Great Britain's team of Carl Wallbank, Grant Crossingham, Bruce Kavanagh, Gordon Rigg and Gary Wirdnam will be defending the title of HANG GLIDING WORLD CHAMPIONS this June in Laragne, France

Great Britain became WORLD CHAMPIONS in Big Spring, Texas, USA, 2007. The standard is so high in British Hang Gliding today that three of the pilots from the 2007 winning team, Richard Lovelace, Robin Hamilton and Dave Matthews will not be defending their title. Last year our team also won the Pre-Worlds, a competition run on alternate years as a rehearsal for the following year's world Championships so expectations are high that we can retain our title.

GB team's main competitors will be the French, who will be flying on their home ground, but the Austrians are also expected to be very strong, especially as they have recruited an ex world-champion (Manfred Ruhmer) to spearhead their bid for the championship. The Australians will also pose a threat after one of their team won the individual pre-worlds in 2008 and with the recent inclusion of Jonny Durand,, ranked no 1 in the world. Despite the size of the US hang gliding community and the superb flying environment in many parts of  the US, they have not appeared as serious contenders on the international scene, but this year they appear more focused so things may change.

In the last 10 years the UK has been regarded as the underdog at the international level. This is not too surprising given the British weather, the congested UK countryside and the limited number of pilots but on the plus side, but thanks to John Aldridge, our recently retired Meet Director, we have a well coordinated competition scene that includes 3 competitions in the UK and a week-long competition in Europe (this year this competition is located in the Spanish Pyrenees).