"The paragliding athletes will take off from top of Langkisau hill and land at Salido beach."Painan (ANTARA News) - A number of paragliding athletes from 23 countries will participate in an International Paragliding Championship on April 15 at the Bukit Langkisau, West Sumatra district of Pesisir Selatan.
The organizing committee chairman of the International Paragliding Championship, Ikbal Ramadipayana said here on Tuesday that the participants are among other things from France, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
The Paragliding Championship is a part of the "Langkisau Festival 2013" which will be held in line with an Exhibition expected to be organized by the Ministry of Development of Disadvantage Regions (PDT Ekspo) and the 15th anniversary of Pesisir Selatan district.
Top of Langkisau hill, about 500 meters high above sea level is one of good and famous paragliding arenas in West Sumatra province.
The Bukit Langkisau paragliding arena is equipped with wide parking lot, villa and restaurant.
"The paragliding athletes will take off from top of Langkisau hill and land at Salido beach. While flying, they will enjoy beautiful scenery of the Salido beach," Ikbal said.
Earlier, public relations officer of the event organizing committee, Tagor Siagian said on Friday (March 22) West Sumatra will host the first of the seven series of the World Paragliding Championship Precision Landing which is scheduled to take place on April 26-28, 2013.
The World paragliding championship will take place at the Bukit Langkisau in the Pesisir Selatan district town of Painan, West Sumatra.
To date, some 20 fliers from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and China have registered their participation in the event, he said.
According to him, general chairman of the Paragliding Accuracy World Cup (PGAWC) and International Aerosport Federation (FAI), accepted the West Sumatra`s proposal to host the event considering the great interest of the Indonesian athletes in joining the paragliding along with the beautiful and challenging locations to fly.
"This also shows that the world paragliding ranking officials do not neglect the achievement of the Indonesian paragliding athletes since the last five years," he said.
As an example, three of Indonesian female athletes namely Ifa Kurniawati (2010), Milawati Sirin (2011) and Lis Andriana (2012) became champions in the PGAWC in three consecutive years.
In addition, the Indonesian athletes also became overall champions in the Asian Beach Games I in Bali in 2008, and in the 2011 SEA Games by grabbing ten out of the total 12 numbers contested.
(Reporting by Agung Pambudi, editing by Bustanuddin)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
