28/08/2013 Day 1 Kolomna, Russia

We have a new World Record in Speed - set by Greg Windmiller on the 3rd round!!   2.371 seconds

Congratulations to the winners:

1st Place - Curt Bartholomew, USA

2nd Place - Tommy Dellibac, USA

3rd Place - William Sharman, UAE

All subject to final confirmation (and ratification)

++ STOP PRESS ++   28/8/13 21.00    Live Results now available HERE

Start with SPEED

Yesterday  evening was the Opening Ceremony.  As promised by the organiser, a short one, but effective.  In front of the podium with all the flags flying, we had speeches from local dignitaries, the sponsor of the event, the owner of the club and Graeme Windsor - and then we had a parade of the athletes behind their National Flags and each athlete was introduced by the announcer.   This was followed by the Competitors' briefing from the meet organiser and then the Chief Judge explaining the rule clarification detailed on  the Notice published in the competitors tent from the Jury.    The jump order was given and each group of 4 then decided what aircraft exit order they would  take.

This morning, sun and an 8.00 start with the first Speed round.  If all works as planned, the results will be posted at the end of each round on our website - follow the link

It is now 9.10 and we are close to the end of Round 1 Speed.  The plan is to continue with Speed and do all three rounds this morning.  The conditions here are great.

11.00 Round 2 Ends 

Three rejumps and then the Judges will break to check all the scores so that they can be posted for the first 2 rounds - at the moment anything is unofficial!.  2 rejumps were caused by cutaways and one by equipment malfuncion.

13.00

The one rejump (equipment failure) from Round 3 is done.  Unfortunately the best laid plans .... failed.  As yet we are unable to post the results as promised (even though they would be unofficial) and are currently working on it with the organiser's technical guy.  PD have the solution - they have posted two people opposite the scoring station.  One with a set of binos and one with the jump order - and they read and write down the results as they happen - and can then post them.  Of course these are very unofficial/unapproved - but they have some idea of what is going on.  Meanwhile everyone has gone to lunch continues ill continue after lunch with first round of Distance. 

16.00

Things are going so fast here - in more ways than Greg's new World Record.  We have just had a 15 minute call for the second round of Distance!!  There will then be a pause as we are to be treated to an Air Show I hear.  (I heard wrongly - just a short standby).

The results in PDF format are on the IPC Results page now for the Speed -Distance will be up as soon as the Chief Judge authorises it.

16.45

 We are on standby for the moment - due to an external air show.  We should be recommencing with 2nd load Round 2 at 17.45.  We had an exciting round of Distance with the female world distance record being exceeded twice, first by the current record holder, Jessica Edgeington and then by Cornelia Mihai.

17.15 

Load 2 Round 2 Distance in the air. 

18.25

Round 2 completed - and we are now preparing for Round 3.  Just a short break whilst the judges check the results entry.

At the end of Round 2 David Maleze of France is in first place in the European Championships and 2nd in the World Cup to Nick Batsch, USA in first.  Jessica Edgeington is in 4th place and Cornelia Mihai in 6th.  Will publish the final results (unconfirmed as soon as I have them).

Making distance	and Landing

Carving on the speed course	The Australian Team
Pictures courtesy of	Henny Wiggers, FAI Cpntroller

27/08/2013 - Kolomna Russia - Canopy Piloting European Championships & World Cup

The Opening Ceremony will take place this evening at the end of the two days set aside for Official Practice Jumps in the Bulletin.

The pond in a quiet moment, before the sky fills with fast flying canopies as the second practice day gets underway with the first lift at 9.,00.  It is a cold start this morning - competitors may jump distance or accuracy, but the judges will measure distance first - then accuracy.  Speed after 14.00 hrs.  Two jumpers from the Czech Republic were injured this morning -  fortunately not seriously but they have withdrawn from the competition.

There are 79 competitors here, in total.

The opening ceremony is scheduled to start at 19.30 hrs, followed by a competitor's briefing by the Chief Judge, Anders Berggren.  The wind speed recording machine arrived from Cheboksary in the Turbolet by mid-day, so all is ready for the competition to start.  The Jury, Chief Judge and FAI Controller will meeet at 16.00 hours for the final confirmation.

The organisers have found a sponcor - congratulations.

They therefore are able to offer money prizes to the overall winners in each Event

26/08/2013 Day 4 Cheboksary, Russia

The competition is continuing with re-jumps and tie-breaks as I prepare to leave for Kolomna and the next European Championships and World Cup this time in Canopy Piloting.  I will update these pages as soon as I can with details of the prize giving ceremony and the final results.

Congratulations in advance to all the winners, and those who held their nerve through the tie-breaks in difficult conditions.

Taisya Krivoshcheoiva, Junior Female, Russia - after her semi-final jump with a score of 4 cm  is in gold medal position (with the final yet to come) in both the European Championships and World Cup following the disasterous jump by the Chinese girl, Ling Zhang who lost her commanding lead with a 16 cm score on the 9th round.  She is still joint 2nd so all will depend on the next jump.

Yesterday evening we completed the 8th Round of Female Team Accuracy (European Championships) and the tight competition between Belarus, France and Poland with 1 point between each team at the end of the 7th round continued to the 8th.

Belarus  56 points - France  57 points - Poland 58 points. 

Congratulations to the competitors.  Their positions will be confirrmed when the results are signed off by the Chief Judge.

For the World Cup - China is in first position  with 33 points, Belarus 2nd and France 3rd.

The Unofficial Results for the final round of Male Style have now been posted:

The first three placings are the same for both the European Championships and the World Cup:

Libor Jirousek, Czech Republic, 1st place with 31.81 points

Marco Pflueger, Germany, 2nd place with 32.24 points

Jiri Gecnuk, Czech Republic, 3rd place with 33.00 points

We now have the results (unofficial) for the final of the Female Style:

Olga Lepezina, Russia has taken first place in both the European Championships and the World Cup with a totla of 36.95 points.

Evgeniya Furman. Russia has taken second place in the European Championships but was beaten by Yan Cao, China in the World Cup with 38.23 points to Evgeniya and 38.17 to Yan Cao - very close.

In third place in the European Championships is Irena Nikulina, Russia with 38.42 points.

Congratulations to all the Style Medal Winners.

As the competition comes to an end this office gets busier than ever - trying to get the results finalised - first for the cuts at the end of rounds, and then with the final results in all competitions and events.  The final rounds of style and accuracy will be jumped today.

25/08/2013 Day 3 Cheboksary, Russia

Day 3

All the attention was on the pit this afternoon - good conditions and exciting accuracy.

This excellent photograph was taken by one of the Volunteers : Natasha Dedushkino - Spicaba

16.00 hrs.  The plan is to complete accuracy to Round 8 and all Style by the end of today - leaving the Semi-Final and Final rounds of Accuracy for the morning.  At the moment the last 3 teams female - for round 8 are in the air.  Results to round 7 in the results page below.

There is a good crowd here today, and an announcer at the pit to keep them informed.

After a late finish last night in the fading light the Chinese Girls were the last team to jump. and the last jumper scored 0.00.  Talking to Bob King (Judge) he was very impressed with the way the whole team coped with the changing wind conditions - which had caught out many of the other jumpers - he said "they handled the conditions beautifully, doing all the right things" - and he should know being a former National Accuracy Champion himself.

This morning we started with Style, Female although the plan is to continue with all events - the weather looks good but the temperature has dropped a little.  It was cold at altitude this morning.

Pictures from the Style area

Debriefing	Style area
Cold Blue Skies	Coaches Viewing

The Jury have been at work again - this time they received a protest with regard to the light conditions yesterday evening, but using the complaints procedure they discussed the protest with the competitor and it was withdrawn, as SC Section 5 5.2.9 states that the Meet Director and Chief Judge will decide if the weather conditions are suitable for jumping and judging.

24/08/2013 Day 2, Cheboksary, Russia

Dramatic skies over Cheboksary at the end of the day.

17.30  And the rain returns, but everyone is put on a two hour stand-by so we wait to see.   There is an army of young volunteers to help with the language and generally look after the competitors and those working to make this compeetition a success.  Many of them are language students from the local colleges and enjoying the opportunity to practice their language skills.   The lead photograph was taken by one of the volunteers - Eugeny Petrov - spaciba.

 Some of the Volunteers arriving in the morning

12.00   The Jury is being kept busy here, first protest yesterday, allowed (see yesterday's report) and now a second one today.  The Junior French Female was put out 3rd on a pass in accuracy.  The protest was allowed, the competition rules for Juniors states 2 on a pass.

Otherwise things proceed - round 5 of male accuracy results are now published on the DZ - and will be on this site shortly.

We also have the final results (not approved yet) of the Junior Female Style:

First place is Taisya Krivoshchekova, Russia - Total 27.50

Second place is Leocadie Ollivier-Depuru, France - Total 28.54                                                                                

Third place is Lucia Lippold, Germany - Total 30.03

Congratulations to all three girls. 

We also have the results of the Junior Male Syle (unofficial, of course)i

In first place:  Raphael Lautencher, Germany with 22.41 points

In second place : Anton Sayevich, Belarus with 23.83 points

In third place : Bonifac Hajek, Czech Republic with 25.81 points

Congratulatins to all three young men.

On the way to altitude over Cheboksary.  This morning started at 8.00 with the first widi load.   The programme for today is male style and female and junior accuracy.  The Juniors completed their three style jumps yesterday.

Today the town of Cheboksary is arranging for free busses to the airfield enabling the local inhabitants to come and watch - there is an area set up for the children to play on two very different bouncy castles.  It will be interesting to see how many turn up.  Despite the weather yesterday evening there were plenty of spectators for the Opening Ceremony.

23/08/13 Day 1 Cheboksary, Russia

4.00 Parachuting was abandoned for the day (a huge thunder storm arrived) and it was necessary to prepare for the Opening Ceremony. 

Unfortunately I was premature in my announcement that results would be posted "live" as at other First Category Events attended over the past couple of years.  Due to unforseen problems and complications this will not now be possible.  However, I will post the results (unofficial - of course) as they are posted on the DZ and when they are finally signed off by the Chief Judge at the end of the Competition these will be available in PDF form on our usual results page.

Before the end of the day, the German team protested with regard to problems with the pad and their protest was upheld, so they will rejump Round 3 Accuracy Landing.

The Opening Ceremony  consisted of speeches, however I don't know of another First Category Event at which the Prime Minister of the country it is being held in, and senior Ministers of that state attend and speak - including, of course, Sergey Milnikov still enjoying the memory of his Tandem Jump.  Presentations were made to famous parachutists from the Chuvash Republic, including Maja Petrovna Kostina, Style World Champion 1974 and 5 Times on the Podium at a World Championships, . Graeme Windsor thanked our hosts, the organisers but mostly the competitors for making the effort to travel so far and attend these competitions.  The ceremony ended with the anthems of Russia, Chuvashia and the FAI.  We then had a short display of local dancing and singing, followed by flag jumps, a demonstration into the arena and a low level static line dispatch display.  Fortunately the rain held off throughout the whole ceremony.

3.30  Accuracy put on Standby due to the weather conditions - rain!  3 rounds of Male accuracy completed (results will be up shortly) and 1 round of style Female and Junior.

12.30  Provisional Style Results, Round 1 - Juniors and Female published on linked article below.

10.30 The Competition is well under way. The happiest man on the Drop Zone has to be Silva Gilson from Brazil. He took two days to arrive here - Brazil, UAE, Moscow, Kazan, bus - arriving at 12.30 last night. He came out to the airfield and registered as the 15 minute call went out for the wind drift indicator load. His call came soon after as he was on the first load for accuracy - his first jump in Russia at a World Meet and he scores 0.00 - a very happy man.

At the Team Captain's meeting last night the jump numbers were distributed and questions clarified.  The draw for the Style sets is:

Round 1  .... Sequence 2

Round 2 ....  Sequence 4

Round 3 ..... Sequence 3

Round 4 ......Sequence 1

This morning we start with Junior Style and Female Style.  The aim is to complete three rounds of Junior and two of Female by lunch time.  Meanwhile we start the Male Accuracy.  After lunch the men will do style and the Juniors and Females Accuracy.  At 16.30 the programme ends and we make a quick trip back to the Hotel to change for the Opening Ceremony here on the DZ at 17.30 followed by a welcome party and then back to the Hotel for dinner as usual.

The sun is shining, it is going to be a hot bright day.  Once we sort out the transfer system the results will be available on the IPC Results page - so follow the link.

1 Day to go, Cheboksary, Russia

Today started with cloud and rain but by 10.00 the skies had cleared, the sun came out, and all was set for the Tandem Jump of the Minister of Sport for the Chuvash Repuiblic, Sergey Milnikov and his tandem master, Jiri Blaska, the FAI Controller.  The Minister really enjoyed the experience and thanked everyone involved.  Given the support for this competition shown by his Ministry it is nice to be able to share our enthusiasm for the sport in such a real way.

Sergey Milnikov - Graeme Windsor - Jiri Blaska	Being interviewed by the press after

Today we continue with official practice jumps from the two Turbolets and two Antonovs.

Antonov = Style	Turbolet = accuracy

 By mid-day the rain was back and we have grey cloud cover.    After lunch the sun was out again and we continued with official practice jumps for the Accuracy and Style competitors.

Inside the Antonov	Style Runin

2 days to go, Cheboksary, Russia

This is a hint of the welcome that awiats the teams still to arrive for the European Championships and World Cups in Freefall Style and Accuracy Landing.  Official arrival and registration plus training jumps start tomorrow.  Many teams are already here and have taken advantage of the good weather to get in some training jumps on this DZ.  In total 17 Delegations have pre-registered with a total of 155 competitors.  We shall see the final make up of the teams once they have all arrived.  The judges are in place and have spent the last couple of days coming up to speed for this year's First Category Event.  The Jury is also present, thankfully with little to do!

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Closing Ceremony, Banjaluka, BiH

 The French Girls with their hard fought for medal.

Throughout the competition - Live Results available - follow this link

Videos available on YouTube - follow the link and the Playlists.

By the end of the closing ceremony everyone was humming the French National Anthem –' Les Marseillaise’. The French delegation was represented on every single podium, only being beaten by Belgium’s Hayabusa in the 4-Way Open in both events (European Championships and World Cup)  and by the UAE in the 4-way VFS (World Cup). The great atmosphere of the whole competition continued through the prize giving and the closing banquet, held on the DZ.

The organisers received a huge round of applause for the helpful and friendly way they had conducted the whole event, and in his closing speech the President of the Parachute Club of Banjaluka reminded everyone that next year they would be hosting the CF and Style & Acc WC – and who knows he may welcome everyone back in 2015!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/airsports_fai/9576049460/

The two competitors’ meetings held in the afternoon continued the general good feeling. In the Formation Skydiving meeting the competitors on the whole were happy with the conduct of the championships and the judging.

There was some discussion around the way “head up” and “head down” are specified in the regulations and the problems some had with interpreting or understanding them. There was also a suggestion following the situation at the end of the 4-Way Female event.

The USA felt that the tie-break round should be timed so that the team that is fastest to the last point (if a tie continues) should be declared the winners – rather than the count back system which is currently in the rules. That meant the competition was decided on one jump – however the same could be said of the proposal as the tie break round would be the deciding one. It does however seem a neater solution.

At the Artistic Events’ competitors meeting concerns were raised about the situation teams found themselves in following exit commands that had them landing well off the airfield and then being asked to jump through cloud when they could not see the ground. Some competitors felt they could not take the risk of not jumping for fear of their concerns would not be considered pertinent.

The British Freestyle team asked for a formal letter of apology over the error made in announcing them as placed 3^rd in the European Championships – before the adjustment had been made. They had announced this to their sponsors and now had to correct the situation. This will be forthcoming.

The competitors expressed being satisfied with the way the compulsory rounds had been judged believing the judges had listened to their suggestions and concerns before the competition started – and they believed the judging was an improvement on previous years.

All videos from the competitions, both Artistic Events and Formation Skydiving are on the IPC pages of YouTube – and over the coming days they will be sorted into the Playlist to make them easier to find. Unfortunately a few got corrupted between being judged and the transfer so unfortunately these are not available.

Ted Wagner (OmniSkore!HD) is already working on a faster and easier system of transfer to us so that all videos will be available on both the FAI/IPC site (and OmniSkore) as soon as the internet connection will allow after judging – for Prostejov (Czech Republic) 2014.

After the closing ceremony we were treated to an amazing gymnastic display by Daphney – Israel Freestylist. We hope to post the video very soon. This is one talented young lady with her sights set on becoming World Champion.

Blue Skies to all.

18/08/2013 Banjaluka, BiH

Day 5     

Throughout the competition - Live Results available - follow this link

Videos available on YouTube - follow the link and the Playlists.

After the excitement of yesterday today is clear up day and prepare for the Competitors Meetings, scheduled for 15.00 hrs this afternoon in the Hotel Bosna in town.  The transport to the DZ for the closing ceremony will leave at 17.00 hrs.  Today Fay and I are working at loading all the remaining videos to YouTube and then titleing them and adding them to the Playlists - it will take some time!

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