Ranau: Slovenian Rafeal Kerin, 41, won the Paragliding Accuracy World Cup 2011 held at Bukit Kampung Lohan here.
Rafeal's accumulated a total of 12 points to beat 61 other participants from 10 countries and emerge the champion in the three-day competition.
Guang Quiang Sheng of China finished second with a points total of 15, while in third spot was another Slovenian Matjas Feraric with 27 points.
Meanwhile, the women's category saw a dominant performance by Indonesian competitors with Rosnia Dian (267 points), Sirin Milawati (1308 points) and Bonaria Cherry (1385 points) taking the top three spots.
YABAGA from Slovenia won the team event with CHINA 1 from China and Best for Nike from Serbia in second and third respectively.
The Paragliding Accuracy World Cup championship which was held in Sabah for the first time saw the participation of paragliders from Slovenia, China, Indonesia, Serbia, Montenegro, Japan, Hungary, Malaysia, Taiwan and Qatar.
Rafeal said he has been involved in paragliding for the last ten years and had also competed in international events including the World Championship and European Championship.
"This is my first trip to Sabah and the organising of this championship is one of the best I have ever taken part in."
For this year's world championship the hills of Kampung Lohan Ulu, Ranau which is situated 300 feet above sea level were chosen due to it having one of the best paragliding locations in Malaysia.
Next year's championship will be held in Germany. Indonesia hosted last year's championship.
The sport of paraliding which is popular in Europe, East Asia and the United States of America first came to Malaysian shores in 1997.
However, the development of the sport in the country has been rather slow although it started to gain popularity among Malaysians since 2000.
Asmawati Ahmad, 32, one the female competitors who represented Malaysia in the championship, said the sport of paragliding is quite costly as she spent around RM12,000 to RM15,000 for the paragliding gear but because of her love for the sport she didn't mind the cost.
Source: Daily Express
