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Thursday 1 October 2015

Paramotor gliders for Vic Falls

THE build-up to the staging of the inaugural paramotor competition is gaining some momentum after the Air Sports Federation of Zimbabwe revealed yesterday that they are expecting more than 30 international competitors, including some from the United States, for this big event that is set to be held at Victoria Falls from January 4-8 next year.

Lawrence Madamombe, the ASFZ president, told The Herald yesterday that a paramotor club from the United States has already expressed an interest in sending some competitors to this event which is also expected to attract other top paramotor gliders from South Africa and a number of European countries, including Germany. “A paramotor club from the United States is willing to come and compete in our inaugural event at the Victoria Falls from January 4-8. I think this is a good start and a big boost for us as we now also have to move fast in having our own paramotor gliders from Zimbabwe who will take part in this international competition.

“We need to train about 10 to 15 racers and two to three instructor pilots who will train or handle our paramotor gliders between now and December before they compete in the international competition in January next year.

“The Paramotor Extreme Racing is sanctioned by the Air Sports Federation of Zimbabwe which is now recognised by the Sports Commission as the motherbody of all aviation sports in Zimbabwe.

“The international event in January 2016 is in line with the Government’s ZimAsset initiative in which we aim to grow our economy through sport tourism,” said Madamombe, a former Air Zimbabwe pilot.

He said they were expecting between 30 to 40 competitors and their supporting staff for the January 4-8 competition at the Victoria Falls and “although the number is lower, they usually have significant tourism revenue”.

“The big appeal of the event is not the number of the competitors but the wide coverage of the sport into millions of homes thus further putting our country, through the iconic Victoria Falls, on the world stage. “Paramotoring or paragliding are sports that are fast getting interest in the world. There are hundreds of thousands pilots in the world who partake in this sport. France alone has more than 25 000 registered pilots. Our objective is to bring these adventure pilots to our shores to compete in precision adventure flying.

Source: Paramotor gliders for Vic Falls (24/09/15)

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