Ozone Team Pilot, Felix Rodriguez has won the Spanish Championships 2023 in Pedro Bernardo, Spain.

This is the third time Felix wins the Spanish Championship, flying his Enzo 3 and the Submarine.

He reports:

“I arrived at Pedro Bernardo very motivated after El Yelmo, I knew that winning was difficult and I didn't want to risk everything, because we were racing also to get a spot in the next European Championship, I wanted to be among the top 3-5 and if the opportunity presented itself, win or at least get on the podium.

We flew 5 demanding and technical tasks. The first task wasn’t that good for me I got stuck half way, lost 12 min and finished 12th overall.The second task was a proper race to goal that required tons of experience and strategy, I finished ninth to ended up eleventh in the general.

Miraculously, during the third task everything aligned for me, I was connected to the conditions, finding the best and fastest lines to finally win the task and get 1000 points that catapulted me to second place overall.

During the fourth task, I took the wrong decision right after the start point that put me in 7th place overall and 80 points behind the leader, Mika Diaz.

It was the fifth and last day of the race when many friends came by to remind me that I can still win, that I just need to fly as I did on task 3. I thought I wish I could, I thought not every day we fly with the same connection, I didn't know what I was going to do, I just thought about flying as always and thus being able to squeeze my potential to the fullest... without thinking too much.

My start point wasn’t the best but I continue to gain terrain and get closer to the leading gaggle when at the 25 Km mark I find myself high and away from the pack and decided to go for a solo mission and escape.

This worked well for a while, but when it was time to jump Villartoros, I did not get the good line and I had to turn around to join the group led by Xavier La Porte. We climbed well and jumped to the Avila valley to look for the confluence, I chose a good line and glided very well but things got turbulent and I lost the glider at full bar. I lost some altitude but at this point I found a way to scape again making a straight line in the confluence and look for the last thermal... the strategy works out well and I caught a +7 . I reached the goal with plenty of time ahead of the leaders to win the competition.

This was a high level race, where the leaders changed every day.

I managed to make the difference in two tasks,I forgot the fear of losing which gave me the advantage of risking more, winning not only the comp but also a spot in the Europeans next year”

Congrats Felix and Cheers from all the Team.