This year there were more competitions in each class of the Free Flight World Cup and at 2912 there were considerably more participants in these competitions than in any previous year. This had broken the record which had been established by 2653 total competitors in 1993. There was the same picture in all four individual categories of a record breaking number of competitors. With the increased number of competitions the average entry in each event was not also at a record level; in F1A, F1B and F1C there was an increased average compared to last year, while in F1E there was a drop against 2000. This drop could probably be related to the bad luck of poor weather at a number of the 11 F1E competitions.

F1A was won by Pieter de Boer of Netherlands, a Dutch succession to Maarten van Dijk’s victory in 2000. The F1A crown had been closely fought through the year with the lead changing places several times. Victor Stamov had been leading in mid-summer, overtaken by Stephan Rumpp when he was the first to win three events, but he was finally overtaken by Pieter with wins in three major competitions giving him victory by four bonus points. In F1B Bernd Silz (Germany) took the World Cup title, having been in the lead during the summer, overtaken by last year’s winner Ivan Kolic who was the first person to win three events. Ivan consolidated his lead with a fourth win, in the well-supported Sierra Cup, but Bernd took back the lead by two points with a win at Euro-Fly, the final event of the year. By contrast F1C had been lead for most of the year by John Cuthbert, Great Britain, who had quickly built up three wins. Eugeny Verbitsky came close to his score with a total including second places in some well supported competitions (and hence augmented by bonus points), but John secured the title with a win in Euro-Fly with additional bonus points. F1E had a record 11 competitions in 2001 and the victor, Daniel Petcu of Romania, achieved the remarkable feat of having reached placings eligible for World Cup points in 10 out of these 11 competitions. He had been closely followed by Vojtech Zima of Czech Republic, with a clear gap in front of third place.

The organisation of the World Cup ran smoothly apart from the usual late receipt of results from a few competition organisers. No results or news was received from the organisers of the Soko Cup scheduled to be held in Bosnia Herzegovina in August. Other people have reported that the event was not held because of bad weather, but it would have been a small courtesy for the organisers to pass on this news.

Comments have been received about a number of competitions being run at a standard rather below that required by the Sporting Code. This follows a protest in 2000 which eliminated one event from that year’s World Cup on account of organisational shortcomings. While low standards are not desirable for any competition on the FAI Calendar, consideration should be given to more active elimination of sub-standard events from the World Cup. Like other years, at the start of 2001 a letter was sent to all organisers emphasising the need for observing the Sporting Code but this appears to be inadequate without further sanction.

Total number of participants in all four classes: 2912