WCIS - 2016, Day 1

Wednesday 12th October

09.30hrs:  There's a buzz in the air and it's not just from the tunnel fans! This discipline has encouraged an enormous following, which is evidenced by numbers of competitors registered - check out the Delegations pages HERE. 

The junior element is a truly welcome addition to the sport, many of them being real natural flyers. For the moment there is much meeting and greeting of friends - both old and new, whilst we wait for the official period of training to start.

The competition starts in earnest tomorrow morning and as is usual, the scores will be available live on our specific Results Portal HERE

Regan Tetlow: MC and Official Presenter	Jostling for the best viewing positions

13:00hrs:  What sets this particular tunnel apart from many others, is how quiet it is, which must be a bonus for the competitors but can't do a great deal for sales of earplugs. We're well into the official FS practise flights right now and of course no Indoor Skydiving meet would complete without the enthusiastic presentation by the one and only Regan Tetlow. For this competition he is being ably assisted by Anna Moxnes, herself a world class Freeflyer, of Skydive Voss in Norway.

The first of the Artistic practise flights are just about to start, where many of the competitors have chosen to fly to their own choice of music, which is likely to add another dimension to their routines.

16.00hrs:  The Junior competitors are gaining immense support from the audience and it's easy to see why - many have a fluidity of movement as well as an inbuilt sense of artistry that some senior flyers seem to lack. Right in front of our eyes, one can imagine future World Champions in the making.

16.40hrs:  The Opening Ceremony was scheduled to start at 17.30hrs, but a request to the Jury to put the time back to 18.00hrs has received approval.

18.00hrs:  Our Master of Ceremonies was none other than Regan Tetlow looking quite splendid in his Dinner Suit who went on to introduce Michał Braszczyński, CEO of Flyspot who welcomed everyone to the competition. Following the raising of the FAI flag, accompanied by the FAI anthem, the competitors were introduced digitally to the audience to much applause. Brief introductions were made by the FAI Controller, Ron Miasmikov, the Jury President, Patrice Girardin and the Organiser, Agnieszka (Aggie) Solomon. The Chief Judges of FS and AE, Jurate Janusauskiene (Lithuania) and Aliya Ananina (Russia) then introduced their respective panels of judges to the audience.

Michał Braszczyński, CEO of Flyspot	Regan Tetlow: Master of Ceremonies
Formation Skydiving Judges	Artistic Events Judges

 The meeting then divided into those involved in Formation Skydiving and those in Artistic Events and Jurate then proceeded to do the draws for Formation Skydiving 4-Way Open and Female, 4-Way Junior and VFS.

Following the draw she then held a Competitors' briefing. Meanwhile Aliya did the Artistic Events draw and carried out her competitors' briefing. We start tomorrow morning at 08.00hrs with Formation Skydiving 4-Way Open, followed by 4-Way Female, 4-Way Junior and VFS. The schedule continues with a round of Freestyle Solo, both senior and junior, followed by a round of Dynamic 2-Way. The plan is to complete 4 rounds in total for each event on Thursday. It'll be an early night for everyone!