Another exceptional result for the Italian team at the 2026 European Hang Gliding Championships, held in Gemona, Italy, from 31 May to 13 June 2026. The Italian squad secured its sixth consecutive European title, while Alex Ploner won individual gold and Christian Ciech individual silver. Other Italian team members in the top ten were Marco Laurenzi (fifth) and Lorenzo De Grandis (tenth).
The championship also confirmed the outstanding performance of the Icaro Laminar, flown by four of the top ten pilots in the overall standings. In the task held on 8 June, no fewer than seven Icaro Laminar gliders finished in the top ten, underlining this model's competitiveness and consistency.
At the 2025 Hang Gliding World Championships held from 13 to 26 July in Ager, Spain, Icaro were, as always, a dominant presence, with four of the top ten class 1 pilots flying the Icaro 2000 Laminar:
Marco Laurenzi (Italy) in second place, Arne Tanzer (Netherlands) seventh, Christian Ciech (Italy) eighth, and Alex Ploner (Italy) tenth.
In total, 24 of the 115 participants in Class 1 flew the Icaro 2000 Laminar.
Of the six tasks, the third provided a good demonstration of the Laminar's superb performance: the excellent weather conditions, with a lot of cumulus clouds and therefore many powerful thermals, meant that pilots did not have to waste time searching for uplift, and could concentrate on flying fast.
In fact the winners of that task, Christian Ciech first and Alex Ploner second, both flying Laminar, reached goal four minutes ahead of the next pilots.
The Icaro Laminar was flown by all the athletes in the Italian team, and it was also chosen by pilots from the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Mexico, Australia, Spain, Brazil, the United States, Slovakia, Austria and Belgium, showing that Icaro's quality and performance are truly world-leading.
So, Alto is the new intermediate wing!!
Designed by the world champions Manfred Ruhmer and Christian Ciech, this advanced intermediate glider is the evolution of the Orbiter 2.
The target for this new intermediate wing was to implement the ease of use in every flight moment, without penalizing the performances.
This glider is the right choice for the pilots:
Christian won all four tasks.
June 2021
Leadership certified by results, not just talk.
The hang glider’s modern age began in 1996 with the introduction of topless gliders.
From then on, there have been 12 World Championships.
Icaro2000 have won 8 of them.
For Alex it is his third world title
Many pictures on
Flafly
July 2019
The championship took place in Tolmezzo in Italy
Flavio Tebaldi was team leader.
July 2019
Alex Ploner in first place, Christian Ciech second, Manfred Ruhmer third at the 32nd Valerio Albrizio trophy, Laveno.
On the podium, Alex made the most of the occasion. "At Laveno it's very rare to see Manfred below me on the podium, so I couldn't resist taking the opportunity of resting my elbow on his head for a moment."
June 2019
Thomas told us "Ciao ragazzi, it was a challenging comp with Manfred in the task committee.
I guess you know what this means! He really pushed it, with not too many pilots reaching goal on many days, except for the last day for a happy ending.
The Laminar is flying great, it brings me to the next level and to team up with MR is awesome. Such a great guy and a pilot to learn from in many ways!"
"It was a real good last day, strong conditions in the mountains.
It was a very good way to celebrate my birthday with the last day and overall comp winning.
And that with very little hang-gliding training but with good motivation and a perfect glider"
Alex Ploner wins the European hang gliding championships.
For the second time, Alex Ploner wins the European cross-country hang gliding championships, demonstrating his remarkable flying skills.
Having won seven world championship titles and and seven European titles, the Laminar shows that ALL HANG GLIDERS FLY WELL. SOME FLY BETTER.
It is his second European title, for Icaro the 7 th.
For 2018 we have built the best Laminar ever, never so perfect
Go to page of the Laminar
Our Alex Ploner second, just a few points behind Petr Benes.
Christian third, both with hang glider Laminar.
Great Italian team that now has won 5 times the worlds.
Thanks also to the tireless team leader Flavio Tebaldi.
He is now 7 times World Champion with his Swift
Alex Ploner first on Laminar
Best results for Icaro 2000: 4 Laminar in the first 4 places, 7 in the first 10.
