A LASHAM-based pilot has struck gold at the World Junior Gliding Championships in Australia.

Tom Arscott, 23, a final year engineering student at Imperial College, London, and a pilot at Lasham Gliding, received his medal in the Club class of the championships in Narromine, New South Wales.

Team-mate Sam Roddie, from Yorkshire, finished in the bronze medal position.

Two other Lasham-based pilots, Matt Davis and Mike Gatfield, took 10th and 15th place respectively in the Standard class.

The 10-race competition series involved flying long cross-country courses of between 170 and 310 miles each day in the heat of the southern Australian summer. Average speeds of around 62mph to 77mph – and on one day more than 93mph – were achieved depending on the conditions.

Over the course of the marathon competition the pilots, who came from more than 20 countries, flew nearly 2,200 miles.

The two medal-winning British pilots flew incredibly consistently and, after the first six races, occupied the top two spots overall.

The next two days saw them somewhat off the pace and the British gliders were overtaken in the overall standings by Germany’s Phillipp Schultz.

Heading into the final race, Arscott was lying second, just 79 points (out of 8,286) behind the German while Roddie looked to have too much to do to regain a medal position having dropped to seventh overall.

However, an inspiring and gutsy performance in the final race, an audacious game plan brilliantly executed and great tactical awareness allowed them to slip away from the German team and finish the three-hour race significantly faster than their opponents.

Second and third places in this final race were enough to secure gold and bronze overall, with Schultz finishing in the silver medal spot.

The pilots and their crews were still in Australia as The Herald went to press, packing up their gliders in the shipping container used to get the equipment all the way to Australia from the UK and preparing it for the return journey.

Lasham pilots have a fantastic record in world gliding championships.

The current senior world title holders in the 20m Multi-Seat class are brothers Steve and Howard Jones and other recent successes include Jez Hood (world silver, standard class, 2014), Ayala Truelove (women’s world silver, club class, 2011 and 2013), and Steve Jones (world silver, open class 2010 and European bronze, open class 2009).