6th Day of the Mondial, 3rd December 2012

Monday, 03 December 2012 19:28

Monday 3rd December - Day 5 of competition

15.30 Formation Skydiving, Canopy Formations and Artistic Events stood down for the rest of the day along with the Style jumpers, however accuracy and CP continue. Tonight sees the start of the training for the skiing element of the Paraski event, and the actual skiing will happen tomorrow evening from 18.00 to 22.00. Spectators on both days will be welcome.

After 6 rounds of Formation Skydiving have been completed, we still have a very tight competition in all events -

VFS: France 142 : UAE 140 : USA 131 and Canada are in 4th - their first year of competition!
8-Way: USA 137 : France 133 : Russia 117
4-Way Open: USA 156 : Belgium 154 : France 152 again with Canada in 4th place
4-Way Female : USA 119 : France 118 : Norway 105 - a real cat fight!
In the 4-Way Female the UAE team have not improved on their 11th place

Canopy Formations also has a very close competition developing and in both 4-way events there is a tie for first place after round 4 was completed:

2-Way Sequential - Round 5
France 1 : 107 Australia 1 : 98 and USA1 : 95.
4-Way Sequential - Round 4
USA and France 35 : Russia 22.
4-Way Rotations - Round 4
France and Russia 62 : Belarus 68.

We are still waiting for the results for Canopy Piloting and Artistic Events to be posted - at the moment in Canopy Piloting we have a result in the Speed Event.

1st Place : Curtis Bartholomew, USA with 294.805 cumulative score
2nd Place: Thomas Delibac, USA with 272.457 cumulative score
3rd Place : Jason Moledzki, Canada with 270.429 cumulative score.

Each day the local TV company Dubai Sports is broadcasting live from Skydive Dubai between 11 and 13 hours. It has been a huge learning curve also for the TV production team to try and understand what is going on; particulary as so much of the competition is happening in the air, and jumpers are landing on four different drop zones. They are making an excellent job of it with shots of a very busy and colourful drop zone here at Skydive Dubai, and filling in with interviews - including one with Graemen Windsor, IPC President At the end of the day they hold their \"wash up\" meeting in the Media Tent - Dubai style:

TV production

The Speed Skydiving Demonstration/Test competition completed yesterday with

: Winner

Marco Wiederkehr SUI ,

Christian Ferrari GER 2nd and

Christian Labhart, SUI 3rd

Congratulations to all the competitors who took part in this event - read the article on one of their number, Tim Mace - who has been awarded the FAI Gold Parachuting Medal, (in Mondial Mutterings).

12.00 and it is all happening. Canopy Piloting at Skydive Dubai - 3 rounds planned for today. 3 rounds completed of Speed yesterday evening. Accuracy continues at the beach drop zone; Formation Skydiving and Artistics are jumping onto the crescent - and taking a speed boat ride back to Skydive Dubai.

The reports from the Jury are now also on line - up to today.

We were treated, as promised, to an amazing opening ceremony last night Certainly another record for this Mondial, closer to an Olympic opening ceremony than to any World Meet I have ever attended. A fascinating depiction of the history of flight mixed in with Arabic legends with use of lights, constantly changing back screens and aerial display; early flight, flying carpets, flying performers, and ending with a supurb fireworks display. Made all the more magic by being combined with the celebrations throughout the UAE for their 41st National Day; the walk back to the hotel in a town filled with a party atmosphere completed the evening. However, this morning we started at 7.00

Today\'s Birthdays

Laura Polkjak (Argentina) FS 4 Way Open

Jasminka Zezelic (Croatia) Female Style - Senior

Yaroslav Markevych (Ukraine) FS 4 Way Open

Olav Zipser (Venezuela) Freestyle Videographer