As we reported earlier, the contest is over-subscribed, so the organizers started to scale back entries and the Canadian Team has been affected by the cut. We are now allowed to enter only two pilots in the contest. Since Willem is #1 on the Canadian list and Jerzy #2, I am now on standby.
This in stark contrast to Germany who has 8 pilots, and England with 7. In total 6 pilots were cut from the contest in the name of safety. In the big picture, I fail to see how 6 pilots out of 140 total pilots will make a material difference to safety!
All of the cuts were made to overseas teams, those who have likely started planning the soonest and invested the most effort in putting together their entry.
In the case of Team Canada, Gliders are rented, airfares paid for, hotels reserved - money paid out.
The cuts were made based on the IGC's new ranking list. A Eurocentric list if one has ever been made! The list is heavily biased towards European competitions and the large European countries and awards more points to European competitors then overseas competitors. How are small countries like Canada, Israel, Chile, Argentina and Lithuania (all the countries that have been cut) expected to compete?
Going forward, the process needs to change, Countries need to be guaranteed a minimum number of pilots to remove the inequity of Germany's 8 pilots to Canada's 2 pilots. The IGC ranking list needs to be reviewed for fairness for all countries and the European bias removed.
This can only be done at the IGC meetings and it will be an uphill battle since the entire IGC is Eurocentric.
