{"id":308576,"date":"2026-03-01T23:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/308576\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T23:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:00:08","slug":"on-the-up-northlander-wins-nz-hang-gliding-title-for-second-year-in-a-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/308576\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: Northlander wins NZ hang gliding title for second year in a row"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe contest is in the natural knowledge of the sky and being able to read the sky<\/a> \u2013 how well it works and how it changes during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201c[This year] the thermals were very broken and very narrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pilots competed in daily races<\/a> over six days, with the winner being the one who navigated the course the quickest.<\/p>\n

They spent up to four hours in the air<\/a>, at altitudes of up to 8500ft (about 2500m), covering distances of up to 100km a day.<\/p>\n

Kellner said consistency over the six days was the key to success<\/a>, rather than simply winning on one day.<\/p>\n

His success in winning the 2026 National Open Class qualified him to compete in the Hang Gliding Worlds in Italy in June 2027.<\/p>\n

\"NorthlanderNorthlander Tom Kellner (centre) won the 2026 National Open Class, followed by Abe Kemp (left) and Matt Barlow, both from Christchurch. Photo \/ Maree McNabb<\/p>\n

Kellner represented New Zealand at the World Championships in Italy in 2019 and also qualified last year, but was unable to attend.<\/p>\n

He hoped to find sponsorship to compete as part of the New Zealand team next year, as well as to attend a pre-worlds event in the same location this year, to help learn the conditions.<\/p>\n

Kellner is also learning gliding with the Kaikohe Gliding Club<\/a> to help hone his sky-reading skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the next step up … They\u2019re the ultimate soaring machines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei pilot Bernie Massey took first place in the class 5 \u2013 rigid division (for gliders with hard wings) at the New Zealand champs.<\/p>\n

\"BernieBernie Massey from Whang\u0101rei took first place in the rigid competition. Photo \/ Maree McNabb<\/p>\n

Both are members of the Northland Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club, of which Kellner is president.<\/p>\n

He encouraged anyone interested in the sport to email him at tkmechanicalnz@gmail.com<\/a> for more details. <\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe contest is in the natural knowledge of the sky and being able to read the sky \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,3225,682,23159,2082,168371,168369,119152,78,168372,19133,3025,111,43,139,31469,69,90,1111,29689,8466,14907,223,168370,4468,2563,810,6202,379],"class_list":{"0":"post-308576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-about","9":"tag-according","10":"tag-being","11":"tag-challenging","12":"tag-for","13":"tag-glider","14":"tag-gliding","15":"tag-hang","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-kellner","18":"tag-looking","19":"tag-most","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-northlander","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-on","26":"tag-reading","27":"tag-row","28":"tag-second","29":"tag-successful","30":"tag-the","31":"tag-thermals","32":"tag-thing","33":"tag-title","34":"tag-up","35":"tag-wins","36":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}