World Championships in FS & AE and WC in SP, Prostejov, Czech Rep, Aug 2014 - Day 5

Official photographer Marke'ta & Video Editor Lucie get to have fun too!

Day 5: 29 August 2014

With some 75 aircraft movements yesterday all three competitions managed to get several rounds completed, keeping the judges busy well after 10pm. The Jury are currently in discusssion having received two protests and we await the outcome.

As we've seen in previous meets the 4-Way Open event is dominated by Belgium with their Hayabusa team with this year being no exception. Currently in 1st place with 83 points, followed by USA and neighbours Canada in joint 2nd place with 83 points after 3 rounds. With just the top four teams to be judged, round 4 is close to completion.

The 4-Way Female has no surprises either, with France and USA neck and neck with 68 points after 3 rounds. The two teams produce some exciting video footage and you get the feeling that the USA girls are on a mission this year!

With 4 rounds under their belt, France has taken the lead with 72 points in 4-Way VFS, with USA and Canada trailing in 2nd and 3rd places respectively with 61 and 56 points.

The USA's 8-Way team standing at the end of round 4 with 87 points is in first place, followed by Russia with 75 points and France in 3rd placed with 72 points.  Round 5 is nearing completion with only USA and France's jumps left to judge.

In the Artistic Events, France is dominating the Freestyle Skydiving with their number 1 and 2 teams in first and second place after round 3 with less than a point separating them. They remain the final 2 teams to have their round 4 judged.

The leading competitiors in the Speed Skydiving event are producing some heart-stopping speeds, with Marco Wiederkehr of Switzerland in the lead.  His best average speed over the 4 completed rounds is 511.23kph, a little short of his personal best.

13.30hrs

It is not unknown for Competitions of this size to bring the organisers, judges, competitors and FAI/IPC personnel additional headaches and frustrations, for a variety of reasons.

Apart from the weather holds which delayed the start, we have suffered daily power outages necessitating the need to install a generator to ensure the Judges could at least do their work. This hasn't been entirely successful and today, Day 5, they are yet again re-configuring the latest generator - number three. Apart from the additional frustration of losing the internet - not necessarily linked to the outages - these on-going power problems are lengthening the time taken to complete judging.

Competition jumps are scheduled to be concluded by 14.00hrs tomorrow (Saturday 30 August 2014) but once again the weather forecast isn't as favourable as we'd like. For the moment it looks like the Artistics will conclude today and being half way through most of the FS rounds, the pace is quickening.

14.19hrs

A Protest was lodged yesterday on behalf of the 8-Way team from USA which alleged that the condition of the carpet/foot grip within the aircraft adversely affected their performance in Round 4. The Jury met this morning and concluded that the Protest could not be upheld.  Details of Jury Notice 3.

A second Protest, by the Canadian delegation also on behalf of their 8-Way Team, was brought before the Jury in respect of an airspeed instrument in the rear of the green Turbolet aircraft, indicating a higher airspeed than mentioned in the Bulletins. The Jury subsequently ruled that the Protest could not be upheld. Details of Jury Notice No 4

16.45hrs

Due to the weather conditions experienced this week, Martin Dlouhy, the Meet Director sought approval from the Jury to extend the finish time on Saturday 30 August 2014 by one hour. The change to the published schedule was approved, the competition will now finish at 15.00hrs.  Details of Jury Notice No 5

19.50hrs

We have our first Champions!

...oooOooo...