Highlights Thursday 13th August

Any good competition is as much a test of character as of skill. If yesterday was a test of skill, today's worsening weather and patchy lift made life miserable for many and allowed a select few to shine. People say that the top flyers make their own luck - and never was that more true than today!

Top placings after eight rounds stay the same, except for Skip Miller (USA) who moves up to third place. Joe Wurts is assured the fly-off because of his max or near max scores in every single round.

Tomorrow sees the final round in the Seniors, followed by the Junior and Senior fly-offs. The variety of the conditions has made this a great competition - let's hope for more of the same, and may the best man win!

Placings after eight rounds with worst score discarded:

Individual Seniors:
1. WURTS Joe (USA) 7000
2. HOEKSTRA Alex (NED) 6984
3. MILLER Skip (USA) 6977
3. HOFFMAN Peter (AUT) 6968

Team positions:
1. USA 20927
2. GER 20608
3. CZE 20473
4. NED 20277
5. AUT 19703

British placings:
Simon Thornton (13th)
Peter Cubitt (25th)
Dave Charles (44th)

For official scores please go to the BARCS site.

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Hey this is serious! You're not meant to relax! The South African team clearly don't agree.

QFI editor Dave Jones roared up to the meeting on his Honda.

Soren Svantesson (Sweden) shows Spacewolf design. In 22nd place.

"OY, you do realise you've launched from behind the line... That's a RED CARD...". A World Champs contest needs an army of time-keepers to annoy the competitors...

Rain. Well what do you expect in England???

Special dispensation was obtained to allow frequencies other than 35MHz to be used - still requires careful monitoring of the airwaves. Spectrum analyser in scoring tent requires a very patient operator.

Jaro Muller's English may be limited but his moulding skills are not. In 35th place as last minute entrance in Slovakian team. Seen here holding a copy of Mini Ellipse review in QFI.

Alex Hoekstra (Holland) shows off "Twister '98". Spans 3.5m, airfoil is MH32. Currently in second place, must be a contender for top honours.

Frankie Arzu - author of "Profile" airfoil drawing package, and sole representative of Guatemala. Helped by his mates in the US team.

Stefan Eder after his 1000 in round 7. In 7th placed (disastrous 6th round 684 is discarded). Must not make any mistakes in the last round to make the fly-off.

Portuguese team of Jorge Infante, Alvaro Henriques and Jose Costa are flying a mixture of Esprits, Ellipse 2V and Ellipse 1T. Out to enjoy themselves, currently 24th out of 26 teams.

Mieczyslaw Slowik poses with Stratos outside caravan - span 3.17m, MH32 airfoil. "Slowik" means nightingale.

See you tomorrow!