Ornithol is an old man that is a fan of the Pokémon Sky Relay. His dream is to win the Sky Relay and he asked
Ash Ketchum if he could work with him to attain victory together to which he agreed. He has never actually personally participated in a relay as he was never able to get three Pokémon that could fly. Whenever he sees a promising Trainer, he supports them though.
As he had watched many relay's in the past,
Ornithol was very familiar with the course. He knew all the intricacies and explained where they needed to look out for obstacles. He gave
Ash Ketchum and his Pokémon a crash course the night before the race. He was very instrumental in setting up the strategy for the race by recommending
Ash's Fletchinder charge at full speed right at the beginning to be extremely effective in getting ahead of the pack because in the back there are many Pokémon, making it dangerous there.
He explained that the third segment is comparatively easy to the first two segments as its almost completely straight.
Ash's Noibat was recommended to fly that segment. He did notify them though that the valley has a steep drop-off where there are sudden gusts of wind sometimes.
Despite getting second in the race with
Ash Ketchum and his Pokémon, he had seen the wonderful dream of winning and was grateful and moved.