The world championships select both an individual champion and the national team champions. 

Men and Women compete as equals in the world championship.

Pilots use two main techniques to stay up; ridge lift caused by air rising as it flows over higher ground and thermals caused by air rising due to differential heating on the ground. The cumulus cloud is a good indicator of lift and below these clouds is where you are most likely to see a glider thermalling.

A hang gliding competition is a multi-day event where, subject to the weather, a task is set each day. This task will define a number of turnpoints and a goal. The objective of the competition is to fly around these turnpoints in the fastest time possible. A sophisticated scoring system allocates points to pilots based on the distance flown and speed. A typical task will be 100km in length but on good days tasks have been set which are over 200km. Pilots can expect to fly between 2-8hrs and reach altitudes up to 14000ft.

Hang Gliding has evolved from the initial in flights in 1973 when the endurance record was 8min into a very sophisticated sport involving complicated flight computers and gliders built with state of the art material technologies such as carbon fibre. In the early days hang gliding was infamous for the number of accidents, many of these were due the limitations of the glider but more recently safety has improved and any accidents are nearly always associated with pilot error rather than structural failure.

A hang glider is controlled simply by the pilot shifting their weight from left to right to steer it and shifting their weight forward to speed up and backwards to slow down. The pilot lies face down in a harness which is designed to minimise drag and keep the pilot comfortable for long flights. The experience of flying a hang glider is much more physical than flying a glider (sailplane) but the techniques and tactics are identical in the two disciplines.

Hang gliders are designed to be stable in all but the most extreme conditions. Should the glider go upside down it is very likely it will break up. In these  circumstances the pilot can throw a specially designed fast opening parachute which brings both glider and pilot down slowly.

Each pilot flies with a specialized piece of equipment which is called a Variometer but is normally referred to as a 'Vario'. A Vario contains an altimeter, a GPS, an Air Speed Indicator, a barograph and a flight computer. The vario uses audio and visual techniques to tell the pilot when he is going up, how fast to fly and which way to go to the next turn point. Pilots also fly with a radio, which is used to communicate with other members of the team and with the retrieve driver.

A competition hang glider pilot must have the following attributes:

1. Good spatial awareness: pilots fly in very close formation when thermalling, potentially a thermal may contain 50 plus gliders all vying to get higher more quickly than the next guy.
   

2. Calmness under pressure: pilots have to make fast decisions about the route to take and balance these decisions against safety and the desire to do well in the competition.
   

3. A high level of endurance fitness: Flights have been known to last 6-8hrs, in temperatures from 5C to 40C, during which the pilot only has access to, at best, a couple of litres of a "Sports drink" stored in a "Camelbak" and a few cereal bars. The pilot is continuously working physically and mentally to avoid making mistakes which can lose them the competition or at worst result in a life-threatening accident.
   

4. An ability to analyse complicated scenarios: a hang gliding competition is similar to a 3 dimensional chess game, pilots have to select a route which maximises the probability that they will get the best glides and the strongest thermals. One mistake or just being unlucky can put them on the ground and out of contention.
   

5. Mentally Tough: A pilot can only attempt to maximise the chances of a good flight - sometimes the weather and bad luck can ruin a flight and then you are left on the ground, watching the other pilots fly past.