Tatlısu flies high
The skies above Tatlısu were ‘painted’ with bright colours last weekend, as scores of paragliders took part in a global contest. Chief Reporter KEREM HASAN monitored the action.
PARAGLIDERS from around the world defied the weather to take to the skies above North Cyprus for a major international competition.
The weekend event, organised by the TRNC Air Sports Federation (ASF), saw 87 “fliers” from 20 countries — down from an expected field of 104 — compete in the first of six legs of the Paragliding Accuracy World Cup (PGAWC).
However a planned three days of competition at Tatlısu, following a glitzy launch ceremony in Girne last Thursday evening, ended up being cut back to just one because of bad weather.
Byungchang Jeun of South Korea emerged the winner in the men’s event, and Indonesian Rika Wijayanti in the women’s.
The team event was won by BGD Team — made up of Matjaz Feraric, Valery Tzvetanov, Rok Preloznik and Marketa Tomaskova — while the North Cyprus team — Cemal Direkçi, Umut Akçıl, Görkem Bulunç and Mahmut Gücel — came eighth out of 15.
The next legs of the cup will be held in Kazakhstan in May, Indonesia in July, October in Canada, Nepal in November and Albania in December.
The weather omens were poor from the outset, with high winds preventing competitors from leaping at all on the first day, last Friday.
A meteorological improvement meant all were able to take off from a cliff-top mountain launch site 250 metres above Tatlısu on Saturday, to be judged on how close they landed to a marked target on the coast below.
Tournament director Hakan Cuma said: “Only half were able to jump on Sunday, so this could not be counted [for the competition] as all paragliders had to jump [to be valid].”
Despite the weather problems, Mr Cumas said there had been “excellent feedback” from those taking part, and added: “We are to make an agreement with the UK and Albanian paragliding associations to start bringing paragliders for tourism purposes. They said they didn’t realise North Cyprus was so beautiful.”
Mr Cuma admitted there had been an “issue” over promoting the event, which was only announced last week, days before it began, and that they “would have wanted more spectators to be present”, but they had learned from their “first experience of hosting such a major international event”.
He told Cyprus Today: “We noticed the need to have large monitors and announcements, for people to know which paraglider from which country was landing, as they were only marked with numbers and people would not know who was who.
“Also there was one ambulance from the local health centre present, but near to 90 paragliders . . . so if there had been an emergency involving more than one person, we would have needed more ambulances on standby.
“So all of these are issues we are looking to address for next time.”
Nonetheless, said Mr Cuma: “World Cup officials who were present praised our entire organisation . . . [and] are very warm to holding more such tournaments in North Cyprus in the future.”
ASF president Zeki Ziya described it as a “fantastic event” and a “real show of solidarity”, which had attracted “thousands” to the launch and the closing and awards ceremony, held on Sunday afternoon in Çatalköy’s Acapulco resort.
“We were surprised at the wind and bad weather. We were sort of deceived by the meterology records of the past 20 years, which show that the average weather conditions for this time of year make it perfect for paragliding,” he said.
“But in the end, all paragliders were able to jump at least once . . . and this was
enough for them to be counted as having taken part.”
He added: “We are hoping that through this event, [we can] make Tatlısu and this region a centre of adrenaline-packed events like air sports.”
Prime Minister Tufan Erhürman had told the opening ceremony last week that the tournament “greatly contributed to the recognition of the country” and was “a fantastic response to those who believe North Cyprus is not able to host such international events”.
Tatlısu Mayor Hayri Orçun said his village hosting the international event was “a dream come true”.
He said: “The competition attracted hundreds of spectators despite the bad weather — which was a bit disappointing — and it was amazing to see our skies filled with so many paragliders.
“We received great feedback from the competitors about our amazing scenery and landscape for paragliding.”