Red Bull Paper Wings national winners represent SL at World Championship

Manitha Abeysiriwardana and Senesh Weerasiri who represented Sri Lanka

The official Paper Plane World Championship, Red Bull Paper Wings, was concluded in Salzburg, Austria recently. The World Final was participated by three competitors representing Sri Lanka who emerged winners of Northern, Central and Western Provinces at the local-level qualifiers. 

The 2022/sixth edition of the World Final at Hangar-7 in Salzburg saw a record number of pilots competing in three categories: Distance, Airtime and Aerobatics. More than 61,000 hopefuls across 60 countries participated at this year’s event. 

According to the rules, all Distance and Airtime pilots were required to make their plane from identical materials: namely a single, standardised sheet of A4 paper provided by the event organisers. Their task was to create the most aerodynamic shape possible by folding only – no cutting, tearing, gluing, stapling, or other such modifications allowed.

Lazar Krstić of Serbia dominated the distance event, launching a first throw of 57.13 m that no one could top, and then – even though he’d already won – he took his second throw even farther, to 61.11 m: “I really wanted this win. I was working hard for it, and in the end, it paid off. It’s a great experience, I really like it,” Krstić commented. He continued: “I’m competitive, but I really like to be around other people as well, and I got to meet even more people this time. I’m so happy. You’ll see me again.”

In the Airtime category, pilots threw their planes high into Hangar-7’s arched glass ceiling, aiming for the longest time between take-off and landing. Competing in the Super Final, Rana Muhammad Usman Saeed of Pakistan ended a 10-year-wait for redemption by winning with a time of 14.86 seconds setting a new Red Bull Paper Wings World Final record.

In the Aerobatics competition, pilots had just 60 seconds to dazzle the judging panel, who based their scores on creativity, overall flight performance and technical proficiency. Music, costumes, props, and multiple types of paper planes were allowed, and Seunghoon Lee of South Korea captured first place in a performance where he wore a formal black tuxedo, presented magician-like choreography, and launched planes that twirled, boomeranged, and flapped their wings. 

But the biggest presentation of all came after he won, when he promptly proposed to his girlfriend on stage – by offering her a paper plane, which she tearily accepted.

Manitha Abeysiriwardana and Senesh Weerasiri who represented Sri Lanka at this year’s event thanked Red Bull for giving wings to them to experience an international event: “We’ve been making and flying paper planes since childhood; never imagined we’d be representing the country one day. We are very grateful to Red Bull for the opportunity and will be surely aiming higher next year.” 

Manitha Abeysiriwardana