WCIS - 2016, Day 2

Thursday 13 October

08.05hrs: We're up and running!  The competition started dead on 08.00hrs - with the Republic of South Africa's 4-Way team 'Jazz Republic' first into the tunnel (pic above!).

 Of course, without the constraints of weather and aircraft, each team has only to get to the tunnel entrance on time, perform and leave. All over in a blink of an eye, relatively speaking. With 22 4-Way teams competing we should be able to complete the first round by 08.32hrs, after which we are likely to get the first scores. On completion of Round 1 we'll head straight into 4-Way Female.

08.45hrs: Indeed, we're now well into the first round of 4-Way Female and with only 9 teams, we should be heading into the 4-Way Junior event very shortly. With an experienced skydiver-based audience, the applause will signify how well a team performed - ahead of the actual scores.

12.00hrs: Throughout the morning the audience has been entertained by some great skydiving. As one visitor was overheard to say, "Now I can see what makes them World Champions!", being a reference to seeing Hayabusa (BEL) perform up close and personal. I could have made the same comment myself, as seeing their slick performance is something to behold. Unsurprisingly, after two rounds Hayabusa lie in first place with a score of 57, with France2 Weembi in 2nd place with 54 and the Qatar Tigers in third place with a score of 49.

14.30hrs:  The Artistic Events' Judges have been judging live sat in front of the tunnel. This year we have Singapore competing for the first time ever in a World event and their 14 years old Kyra Poh, who is performing in the Freestyle Junior event, scored a magnificent 9.0 point in each of her first three rounds, putting her in first position ahead of Andrzej Soltyk of Poland and Australia's diminutive Amy Watson. These young flyers are simply mesmerising, but the seniors impress too, particularly the innovative performances from Russia's Leonid Volkov.

The Organisers have a live stream of interviews conducted by Regan Tetlow where he is giving an overview of each flight as well as interviews which can be viewed on this link

++ BREAKING NEWS++: In the 4-Way Junior event France Junior 2 set a new World Record with 24 points in Round 2 - although there is plenty of scope for this to be beaten.  In fact, in Round 4, Canada's Air Devils equalled the record!  At the end of Round 4 Air Devils were in 1st position with 78 points, 2 points behind were France Junior 1, with Canada's second team, Tunnel Vision lying in 3rd position with 73 points.

17.50hrs: Both FS and Artistic Freefly have finished for the day, so we now turn to the fast and furious Dynamic 2-Way event, with the first of three qualifying rounds.