Red Bull continued their tradition of patronage of unusual sports by hosting a paper plane world championship that saw a total of 253 “athletes” taking part in the finals of the Red Bull Paper Wings competition. The contest was to decide who would be crowned the paper plane world champion of 2009.

All competitors used an A4 piece of paper, folded in whichever manner they chose to try to achieve the “longest airtime” or “longest distance.” There was also an acrobatics contest.

The longest distance crown went to Jovica Kozlica from Croatia for sending his plane a staggering 54.5m, but shoulder pain from training almost through a spanner in the works.

Kozlica explained how the rigors of training for the title almost thwarted his bid:

I slept with an ice pack on my shoulder last night. Three weeks of intensive training had taken their toll on my throwing arm

Longest airtime went to Brazilian Leonard Ang for a total flight time of 11.66 seconds and the acrobatics title went to Japanese competitor Kishlura Kisshii, who remarked:

Flying here to the World Championships was my first ever time in a real plane! Now I’m off back home as champion! Nobody will believe me when I get back to Japan.

[Red Bull via Newslite.tv]