3rd Dubai International Parachuting Championship & Gulf Cup 2011 - Daily Diary - 6th December

Day 6 - Completion of the First Event - Formation Skydiving

all three Formation Skydiving Female 4-way teams - British, French and Russian. photo courtesy of Amélie Tirman of the French Team

The day started with a exciting round of Canopy Piloting - Accuracy.  With a building tail wind the water gates did not seem to present too much of a problem, but controlling the landing and achieving a stand up did.  Only one yellow card was handed out this round, to a competitor who tried to stop in the landing zone with a hook turn.  Lucky not to be injured, his public yellow card probably did injure his pride and if that was his only injury he should consider himself fortunate

Pictutre of the Gulf Record Canopy Formation attempt (one wrong grip) - courtesy of Agnieszka Solomon, Judge

Immediately the round finished we moved into completion of round 5 for the Accuracy Female Teams, followed by round 6 Open (mixed) Team Accuracy and Female Teams.  Unfortunately it was not possible to complete round 6 for the women due to one competitor being awarded 4 re-jumps, due to equipment failure i.e. no score given on landing.  Apparently this is not the first competition where this particular competitor has either been very unlucky or there is something about her that upsets the electronic equipment.  She made her re-jumps whilst the Canopy Piloting competitors moved into a round of Speed.  Now they were entering the course with a cross wind and on the carve turned into a headwind.  Only about 20% of the competitors managed to fly the whole 75mts of the course, many managing to keep the canopy flying long enough to run through the exit gate.

We then had to rush back to the hotels to catch the buses which took everyone to the Desert Resort Hotel/Restaurant where we experienced an evening of good food, company and traditional entertainment culminating in a visually mind-blowing firework display.  Thank you to the organisers for providing such a great experience for everyone.  Even the Formation Skydiving judges who had stayed at the drop zone to complete the judging of the final round made it, albeit a little late.

So at the end of the Formation Skydiving competition we have the following medal, and prize money, winners:

4-way Open - 3rd Dubai International Parachuting Competition

First Place with 205 points, an average of 25.6                 France

Second Place with 197 points, an average of 24.6      Belgium - Hayabusa

Third Place with 174 points, an average of 21.8         U.S.A. II

4-way Female - 3rd Dubai International Parachuting Competition

First Place with 147 points, an average of 18.4                 Great Britain

Second Place with 141 points, an average of 17.6      France

Third Place with 174 points, an average of 21.8         U.S.A.II

Gulf Cup - 4-Way

First Place with 115 points, an average of 21.8          Quatar Tigers I

Second Place with 84 points, an average of 10.5          U.A.E. Red I

Third Place wth 83 points, an average of 10.4         U.A.E. Gold II

Congratulations to all the winners and to all the competitors for a good competition.