US’ Austin Cox glides his way to world cup title

After a week of thrilling adventure in the skies of Bir Billing in Kangra district, the Paragliding World Cup 2024 (PWCIndia’24) concluded on Saturday, with US paraglider Austin Cox claiming the top spot after scoring 3,742.6 points.
Cox was comfortably ahead of India’s Ranjeet Singh, who secured the second spot with 3,557.3 points and third finisher Poland’s Dominik Kapica who secured 3,552.4. As many as 76 paragliders from 24 countries, including 22 from India, participated in the event, which began on November 2.
The women’s competition saw Joanna Kocot of Poland secured the top spot with 3,194.7 points followed by Daria Eltekova of Germany and Marina Olexina of Brazil at second and third spot respectively.
Among the India nationals, Ranjeet was followed by Sushant Thakur, who scored 3,478.3 points, Amit Kumar with 3,434.5 points and Ashwani Thakur with 3,311.3 points among others.
The closing ceremony of the Paragliding World Cup was attended by Himachal TCP, housing and technical education minister Rajesh Dharmani as the chief guest.
This was the second Paragliding World Cup to be held at Bir Billing after 2015. Last year, a Paragliding Pre-World Cup was held at the venue, which is also the world’s second-highest.
During the seven days of the world cup, the tasks were cancelled on two days (November 5 and 8) due to bad weather and poor visibility.
Dharmani said organising the World Cup in Bir-Billing was a matter of great pride for Himachal, adding, “The World Cup has been organised in Billing for the second time with the special cooperation of Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and the state government. BPA deserves congratulations for successfully organising the event without any accident.”
The minister said Himachal had abundance of natural beauty and the state government was giving special emphasis on strengthening the tourism infrastructure of the state. “It has been announced to make Kangra district the tourism capital. To attract international tourists in addition to domestic tourists, religious tourism is also being promoted along with adventure tourism in the state,” he added.
Billing Paragliding Association (BPA) president Anurag Sharma, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to the state government for supporting the event.
“Bir Billing is one of the world’s premier paragliding sites with tremendous potential. The foreign pilots and PWCA team who participated praised the site. We urge the state government to establish a dedicated wing for adventure tourism in Himachal Pradesh, similar to Uttarakhand, to fully leverage the state’s potential in this sector,” he added.