World Aerobatics Cup 2008 - Roudnice nad Labem

Roudnice nad Labem awoke on June 8th, 2008 to a sunny morning that promised to be an excellent scene for the World Aerobatic Cup 2008. After Saturday’s two-round qualification there was a big final waiting for World Aerobatic Cup 2008 participants on Sunday. Even so top favourites were Victor Tchmal, winner of the qualification round, and his long-time rival and friend Mikhail Mamistov. Also aiming high was currently the top female pilot in the world Svetlana Kapanina. But the five remaining finalists wanted to break the Russian “triple threat”, among them were Finn Sami Kapio, Australian Matt Hall, German Matthias Dolderer and two Czech representatives Jan Adamec and Martin Šonka.

Much to the delight of the thousands of spectators, Martin Šonka, Czech representative, succeeded in the final, and although he came short of Mamistov and Dolderer, by 0.33 points he beat out Svetlana Kapanina and was 3rd on the winner’s podium. Conversely, favoured Victor Tchmal had to settle for 6th place in Roudnice nad Labem during the premier year of the World Aerobatic Cup.

All finalists, just as all pilots performing with their machines in the varied accompanying program, presented spectators and aviation fans with a great show, spiced up with an untraditional live television broadcast, thanks to which fans at the airfield continuously had an immediate summary of the results and of how the judges evaluated individual figures.

More info at http://www.aerobaticcup.com/...