The Paragliding World Cup returned to Gemona, Italy, from 25th July to 1st August 2026, delivering a week of tactical racing across alpine terrain and the Friuli plains. After a weather-interrupted start, the competition unfolded over six valid tasks, pushing pilots through long ridge runs and demanding valley crossings in conditions ranging from weak lift to powerful mountain thermals. In the end, Baptiste Lambert and Alexia Fischer claimed the overall titles.

With the opening task cancelled due to incoming rain, the field had to adapt quickly to shifting conditions throughout the week. Early racing demanded immense patience during technical valley crossings, with overall winner Baptiste Lambert noting climbs averaging "as weak as 0.2 m/s" to stay airborne. The rest of the tasks challenged pilots with tricky airspace navigation and busy transitions, where lower cloudbase turned the racing into fast, full-speed-bar ridge runs. The competition ended on a high note in the final task, as powerful mountain thermals reaching "up to 6 m/s" enabled the lead group to complete the 70 km course at an average speed of nearly 47 km/h.

Baptiste Lambert secured the top spot on the podium, followed by Martin Jovanovski in second and Roger Aeschbacher in third. In the women's ranking, Alexia Fischer took the gold, with Elisa Deutschmann and Violeta Jiménez completing the podium. All pilots achieved their podium finishes flying the Ozone Enzo 3 and Submarine harness. Team Ozone also topped the overall team rankings, rounding off a highly successful event for the pilots.

Official results at https://pwca.org/events/2026-paragliding-world-cup-italy-gemona-2026

Congrats to all the pilots and cheers from all the Ozone team!

Photos courtesy of Martin Scheel and Anca Tabara