The cream of the world’s paper plane fliers converged in Salzburg, Austria, on Saturday for the fourth Red Bull Paper Wings World Finals and the standard of the competition did not disappoint.
Australia’s three most talented paper plane flying students represented the country, with Arun Neelakandan, Jack Smith and Sonat Erozen making their way to Austria for the finals.
After facing 535 qualifiers and more than 46,000 contenders worldwide, the 200 finalists entertained the passionate crowd and assembled media with a physics-defying demonstration of paper plane skills and prowess.
Veselin Ivanov of Bulgaria dethroned champion Thomas Back in the longest distance category even though the Czech edged close to a world record with his second throw.
The aerobatics category saw winner, Lebanese Avedis Tchamitchian, landing a maximum 50 points.
There was a nail-biting finale for the longest airtime title. Armenian Karen Hambardzumyan snatched victory with a 14.36 second flight, ahead of Ma Ieng from Hong Kong, whose plane lasted 13.76 seconds in the air.
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