Closing Ceremony, Banjaluka, BiH

 The French Girls with their hard fought for medal.

Throughout the competition - Live Results available - follow this link

Videos available on YouTube - follow the link and the Playlists.

By the end of the closing ceremony everyone was humming the French National Anthem –' Les Marseillaise’. The French delegation was represented on every single podium, only being beaten by Belgium’s Hayabusa in the 4-Way Open in both events (European Championships and World Cup)  and by the UAE in the 4-way VFS (World Cup). The great atmosphere of the whole competition continued through the prize giving and the closing banquet, held on the DZ.

The organisers received a huge round of applause for the helpful and friendly way they had conducted the whole event, and in his closing speech the President of the Parachute Club of Banjaluka reminded everyone that next year they would be hosting the CF and Style & Acc WC – and who knows he may welcome everyone back in 2015!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/airsports_fai/9576049460/

The two competitors’ meetings held in the afternoon continued the general good feeling. In the Formation Skydiving meeting the competitors on the whole were happy with the conduct of the championships and the judging.

There was some discussion around the way “head up” and “head down” are specified in the regulations and the problems some had with interpreting or understanding them. There was also a suggestion following the situation at the end of the 4-Way Female event.

The USA felt that the tie-break round should be timed so that the team that is fastest to the last point (if a tie continues) should be declared the winners – rather than the count back system which is currently in the rules. That meant the competition was decided on one jump – however the same could be said of the proposal as the tie break round would be the deciding one. It does however seem a neater solution.

At the Artistic Events’ competitors meeting concerns were raised about the situation teams found themselves in following exit commands that had them landing well off the airfield and then being asked to jump through cloud when they could not see the ground. Some competitors felt they could not take the risk of not jumping for fear of their concerns would not be considered pertinent.

The British Freestyle team asked for a formal letter of apology over the error made in announcing them as placed 3^rd in the European Championships – before the adjustment had been made. They had announced this to their sponsors and now had to correct the situation. This will be forthcoming.

The competitors expressed being satisfied with the way the compulsory rounds had been judged believing the judges had listened to their suggestions and concerns before the competition started – and they believed the judging was an improvement on previous years.

All videos from the competitions, both Artistic Events and Formation Skydiving are on the IPC pages of YouTube – and over the coming days they will be sorted into the Playlist to make them easier to find. Unfortunately a few got corrupted between being judged and the transfer so unfortunately these are not available.

Ted Wagner (OmniSkore!HD) is already working on a faster and easier system of transfer to us so that all videos will be available on both the FAI/IPC site (and OmniSkore) as soon as the internet connection will allow after judging – for Prostejov (Czech Republic) 2014.

After the closing ceremony we were treated to an amazing gymnastic display by Daphney – Israel Freestylist. We hope to post the video very soon. This is one talented young lady with her sights set on becoming World Champion.

Blue Skies to all.