Results

What an incredible Sky Race.... Well done to all the Sky Racers and Parabatix organisational team for putting on an amazing aerial show!!!

The final results are here and as you can see Mathieu Rouanet is still at the top of his game, finishing in 1st place with an incredible time of 4 minutes 17 seconds, only 4 seconds ahead of the young and talented Alex Mateos, swiftly followed by Spanish sky racer supreme Paco Guerra!

Reports, Photos & Videos of day 2 and 3 will soon be up on the BLOG and on our facebook page very shortly.

We will also be releasing a full 40 minute DVD of this first PARABATIX Sky Race produced by the AcroTwins to be published later on this year, ready for Christmas.

We look forward to the next Parabatix Sky Race, already rumoured to be in Asia early next year, stay tuned for more news!

Legend

The stakes were set high with this special edition of Parabatix Sky Racers, set in the Rhone Alps in conjunction with the 38th Coupe Icare which attracted over 60,000 people over the weekend.

With new features and a whole new track layout Parabatix spectators roared as the Icarobatix extreme sky race took place just meters away from them; smoke, high-G, low-to-the-ground manoeuvres = jaws wide open!

This time with a line up of the top six best sky racers from the last Parabatix sky race. There was a lot of action, emotion & intense moments while the scores shifted radically between each race reflecting the outstanding performance of each sky racer shown live on the large chronometer screen.

Sky racers were jumping up and down the score board through out the duration of the two days of Icarobatix. As the end of the event approached, Spanish sky racer Paco Guerra who had been flying very consistently suddenly pulled off an amazing performance on the last sky race and managed to snatch the golden ICAROBATIX trophy ahead of France’s Alex Mateos who finished in second position, a mere 5 seconds behind! Swiftly followed by the leader of the first day Dean Eldridge (GBR) in third place.

Alright Parabatix Sky Racer fans, here are the detailed results you have all been waiting for!

With over six months of preparation, countless meetings with the French civil aviation ‘Parabatix Sky Racers at the Coupe Icare’ became reality!
Organisers of the Coupe Icare told us that they were impressed by the professionalism of our team and look forward to making Icarobatix a yearly event. We would like to congratulate all the sky racers and Parabatix organisational team for an amazing event!

Ring Race Flyman Octopus

Official Parabatix photos by: Emilia Plak, Glenn Tupper, Franck Simonnet

BONUS = Minus seconds off time (for instance drops rings in drop zone)

Red Time text = Sky Racers who took too long to complete the track
OR did not complete the course correctly (for instance no rings
in the drop zone, or wrong turn on a pylon etc.)

Legend

Once again the Parabatix Sky Racers flew in to the Rhone Alps, France, to join in with the Coupe Icare for the second instalment of this specially named edition 'Icarobatix'.

This year, instead of six Sky Racers there were 12, and instead of two days this time there were three days; of masterful sky racing skill as the Parabatix organisers had prepared an even tougher and more impressive race track in two different locations set at the top and bottom of the mountain (Top: St Hilaire; Bottom: Lumbin).

The event consisted of four half-day sky racing sessions of two hours each throughout the weekend. It was an impressive spectacle to watch as crowds cheered to what was undoubtedly the most exciting arial race show ever!

Second-placed sky racing pilot Mathieu Rouanet (ex-world champion) said: "The tracks were really well designed and that different lines and angles could be taken to win milliseconds off the chronometer".

This year there was even more emphasis on ground-based interactive obstacles including the new 'Batixball', a hollow ball that can be dropped and picked up again from any angle. Pilots often had to pick up one or several Batixballs and release them in a designated drop-zone area to gain a five second time bonus.

The first two days (Friday and Saturday) saw all pilots racing for the best time in order to qualify for the final 'knock-out' round. The saturday night leading podium result was:

1st Alex Mateos (Fr)

2nd Mathieu Rouanet (Fr)

3rd Paco Guerra (Sp) - (Last year’s Icarobatix winner)

But the battle was not yet won... the four slowest of the 12 pilots were then eliminated, leaving the remaining eight to go through to the final 'knock-out' round on the Sunday.

With an early morning relocation of the event in Lumbin at the foot of the mountain pilots had to race head-to-head in a dual circular race track while picking up and releasing batixballs in each other's drop zones. The first one to release all their batixballs in their opponent's drop zone eliminated the other.

After some amazing aerial action from the Parabatix Sky Racing team, who performed in spectacular style, rookie pilot Thomas Migneaux (FR) made an incredible last minute catch-up. Despite his slower times during the qualifying round, his air-to-ground batixball skills shone and eventually secured him the winning place and the Icarobatix trophy!

With Mathieu Rouanet (FR) in second and Pavel Brezina (CZ) third right behind, swiftly followed by Laurent Salinas (FR), Alex Mateos (FR), Paco Guerra (SP) and Pascal Vallee (Fr) (current ppg world champion) in seventh.

Some unfortunate luck for Dean Eldridge (UK) who clearly had his goals set for a podium position at the beginning of the event, but after making a mistake during the qualifying rounds found it hard to get back on top.

We would also like to congratulate the other rookie sky race pilots Jérémy Pénone (Fr) et Aurélien Ganaye (FR) for their outstanding performance in their first Parabatix sky race.

Parabatix Sky Race organiser Pascal Campbell-Jones was totally overwhelmed by the whole event. “It’s as close as you’re going to get to real life Quidditch!" he said. "But instead of broomsticks, our pilots fly powered paragliders.”

The level of piloting of these top pilots is incredible. Add to that an outstanding organisational team made up of professionally trained marshals, flight directors, scorers, race director and show coordinators makes the Parabatix Sky Racers a very attractive event.

Even the DGAC (French Civil Aviation), one of the toughest in the world, couldn't fault the Parabatix organisation, a fact that will open up the possibilities for running the event in other built-up, populated locations.

Here is our new promotional video by Devin Graham AKA ‘DevinSuperTramp‘ check out his latest video created specially for us during Icarobatix.

A special thank you to all the photographers who joined in the ICAROBATIX Photo Contest Pro, you can check out the results of this photographer competition HERE.
We would also like to thank Emi Plak (female ppg world champion) for filming the event from above providing the perfect follow cam view of all the action.