We submitted a proposal to the CIVL Bureau for a combined World Championships last year. It was approved by the CIVL Bureau and the Plenary. It included the following restriction on who could fly in the sport class:

"Pilots must not have been listed in the top twenty US pilots since January 2008 for entry into sport class. Pilots must not have finished in the top 2/3^rd’s of a non-Sport Class Category 1 competition held since January 2014, for entry into sport class.

"(Note from Sport Code 7: 2. 2.3 Other Criteria

If a competition organiser wishes to set stricter criteria, these must be declared with the bid for the event. Any other qualifying criteria must be included in the approved Local Regulations.)"

Here is what Stef, the CIVL President, wrote at the time that the Bureau accepted our bid:

Dear Markus and Christine,

Please find attached 2 zipped file for 2 bids that have been accepted by CIVL Bureau. Can you prepare the Organiser Agreement accordingly?

Davis Straub, the organiser, is in copy.

Best regards,

Stephane

Later when the CIVL Plenary met they also accepted the bid.

When creating the bid and the local rules I met repeatedly with Mitch Shipley who will be our meet steward. Mitch has a trailer at Wilotree Park near ours so I used his advice extensively in preparing the bid and local rules as well at the Risk Management Plan and the Tow Device Supplemental Application for the USHPA. Mitch in addition to being a meet steward is a CIVL official as well as a USHPA official.

Mitch was concerned about his ability to do all the checking (back to 2008) to determine eligibility for the Sport Class. We continued talking about how we could address that issue to accomplish the same goal of keeping open class topless pilots from registering for the Sport Class World Championships.

I edited the latest version of the proposed local rules (CIVL has to give its final approval and I have to send them to them eight months in advance which I have done).

Sport Class pilots will be restricted to those who have WPRS Sport Class points: http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=326&ladder_id=9&. At the moment that is 329 pilots. Also, open class pilots will not qualify. Here's the current rule in the local rules:

Sport Class Pilots must not have finished in the top 2/3^rd's of a non-Sport Class Category 1 competition held since January 2014, for entry into sport class. Pilots must have WPRS sport class points.

I sent a note on Saturday to Mitch to add the words: "on August 31, 2019" after the word points in the last sentence.

This edit was made to make it easier for Mitch to determine eligibility having only to check 329 pilots (those who have WPRS sport class points).

Only pilots with WPRS points as of August 31^st, 2019 would qualify, and this would likely disqualify the following open class pilots who have sport class WPRS points:

Daniel Valez
Rudy Gotes
Zac Majors
Felix Cantesanu
Wolfgang Siess

Carlos Rolando Alvarado flew in the 2019 Open Class World Championships, but finished 119^th. He is ranked number 1 in Sport Class. Felix finished 74^th, which puts him in the top 2/3^rd's. I don't know Rudy's status. Daniel finished 20^th.

I've had recent discussions with Stef and others about the criteria. Stef writes:

I’ve re-read your bid. It is very clear on eligibility criteria for Sport.

As it happens, per FAI General Section of the Sporting Code, the bid is part of the rules. The bid has been reviewed by the HG Committee and accepted by the plenary. The bid’s criteria are not in contradiction with Section 7 so, really, there is not much to discuss.

But there is probably a bit for education. So please integrate the HG Committee’s discussion and be nice and convincing and we can have a wonderful competition.

Best,
Stef

Our goal with these criteria for entry into the sport class was to eliminate the possibility of an actual open class pilot entering the sport class. We did not want to see repeated what happened at the last Sport Class Worlds where open class pilots dominated. We have been very clear about this from the beginning that we would not run a World Championship if this was allowed to happen. That is what the Bureau and the Plenary accepted when they accepted our bid, as Stef makes perfectly clear.

We are now awaiting approval of the sport class eligibility criteria from CIVL.

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