24th FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship, Murska Sobota 2022

In September 2022 Murska Sobota hosted the 24th FAI World Hot Air Balloon Championship, the biggest aviation event ever held in Slovenia. Around a hundred pilots from more than 30 countries competed over a week of flights across the flat fields of Prekmurje. The championship gallery has photos from the event.

Postponed, then held

The championship was originally planned for 2020 and moved because of the pandemic. The region had prepared for years, including a pre-world event in 2019. Slovenia even issued a commemorative postage stamp for the championship.

How balloon racing works

A hot air balloon cannot be steered left or right. Pilots can only go up or down, and they use the fact that the wind blows in different directions at different heights. Competition is about precision: flying to a target, often a large cross laid out in a field, and dropping a small weighted marker as close to it as possible.

Each day brings several tasks, scored in points, and the title goes to the pilot with the best total across the week. Flights happen early in the morning and in the evening, when the air is calm, which is why the sky over Murska Sobota filled with colour at sunrise.

Why Prekmurje

The plain around Murska Sobota is ideal for ballooning: flat, open farmland with few obstacles and plenty of places to land. The town has a long tradition of hosting balloon events, and local volunteers helped retrieve balloons from fields all over the region.

The result

Stefan Zeberli of Switzerland won the world title with 24,403 points. Yudai Fujita of Japan took silver and Nicolas Schwartz of France bronze. The best Slovenian result came from national champion Vito Rome, who finished sixth.

See the championship photos, or browse more event galleries.