Himachal: Paragliding World Cup assn clears 70 gliders, no Russian pilots

The France-based Paragliding World Cup Association (PWCA) has cleared the names of around 70 pilots for the forthcoming Paragliding World Cup (PWC India-2024), which is scheduled from November 2 to 9 at Bir Billing in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.
Besides India (hosting country), the pilots from across 31 countries have been selected so far. However, the number of pilots are expected to increase as the Billing Paragliding Association (BPA) has also asked for the wild card entry for those who approach the organisers directly.
The opening edition of the world cup, which was also India’s first, was held at Bir Billing in 2015. Last year, a Paragliding pre-World Cup was held at Bir Billing, the world’s second highest paragliding site and is ranked among the top paragliding sites of the world.
Meanwhile, due to temporary suspension imposed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and PWCA, Russian pilots will not take part in the event. FAI is the world governing body for air sports. In 2022, FAI Executive Board suspended the NACs from Russia and Belarus and removed their rights to organise or participate in competitions, including paragliding. The suspension was because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the previous world cup held in 2015, many Russian pilots took part in the event.
In case of Nepal, the BPA officials said since there was no flying club in Nepal affiliated to the FAI, the pilots from the neighbouring country were not allowed to participate in the championship. However, BPA president Anurag Sharma said, “We have demanded to PWCA that the pilots from Nepal be allowed to take part through Aero Club of India. Maybe they will give permission for this. We have also requested for the wild card entry for pilots who directly approach the organisers. Overall, we are expecting that around 110 pilots will take part in the event.”
Notably, the PWCA team comprising – Daniel Dimov (scorer), Ivan Lukanov (safety and retrieve manager), Anna Berger (social media manager) and Goran Dimishkovski (event manager) – is also coming to Bir-Billing for the world cup.
In a first, the state is also set to launch the debut edition of the Himachal Paragliding Fest (HPF’24) along with the paragliding world cup. Both the events, to be held from November 2 to 9, are expected to attract both domestic and foreign adventure enthusiasts to the state.