4:19pm Thursday 26th July 2007
ROSE Johnson from Lower Eggleton has just failed in her attempt to bring home a medal from the Women's World Gliding Championships at Romorantin in the Loire Valley.
Rose continued her run of good results right through the latter stages of the week and a half long competition. A string of top five finishes including two second and three third places kept her in strong medal contention right up until the last race.
Rose went into Saturday's final race, the ninth in the series, in fourth place overall and with a genuine chance of catching the two German pilots occupying the silver and bronze medal positions.
However, things did not go well for Rose as she was forced to land and take another launch after failing to climb up under the upper cloud. This meant that she started the time-trial race behind most of the rest of the field and missed out on the best soaring conditions of the day as a result.
The Germans suffered in a similar way and, at the end of the day, Rose finished where she had started - tantalisingly close to a World Championship medal.
Rose's disappointment at not winning a medal was, however, more than tempered by the success of two other members of the British team. The poor result from the Germans meant that Rose's team mate in the Club Class, Gill Spreckley, finished a clear winner while Sarah Kelman romped home in the Standard Class, a contest that she had dominated from the opening day of the championship.
Results
Final results.
Club Class (Race 9): 1 Dana Novakova (CZE) 879pts, 2 Hana Vokrinkova (CZE) 877, 3 Halina Rynkiewicz (POL) 846, 4 Gill Spreckley (GBR) 825, 10 Liz Sparrow (GBR) 761, 16 Rose Johnson (GBR) 589.
Overall standings.
Champion Gill Spreckley (GBR) 5310pts, 2 Kathrin Woetzel (GER) 5121, 3 Christine Grote (GER) 5027, 4 Rose Johnson (GBR) 4871, 5 Liz Sparrow (GBR) 4788.
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.ledburyreporter.co.uk