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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17/08/2013 Banjaluka BiH

Follow the links for Results and Videos 

 Day 4 

16.20 The last event - the Formation Skydiving 4-way Female Tie-break round is judged.  Sweden secured third place in the European Championships with a score that was higher than the Russian girls.  France and the USA continued the tie - both scoring 17 points clean.  So France is declared the winner due to their achieving the highest score of the competition between the two teams on round 2 with 27.

4-Way Female European Championships

FRANCE -GOLD MEDAL with 203 points

UNITED KINGDOM - SILVER MEDAL with 170 points

SWEDEN - BRONZE MEDAL with 123 points

World Cup

FRANCE - Aerodyne French Girls - GOLD MEDAL with 203 points

USA - Golden Knights Female 4 - SILVER MEDAL with 203 points

UNITED KINGDOM - Bodyflight Isis - BRONZE MEDAL with 170 points

15.00 hrs and round 10 4-way Open is judged as the girls get their 15 minute call.  VFS has also completed.

4-Way Open

The results for the European Championships and the World Cup are the same:

BELGIUM - Hyabusa - Gold Medal iwth 243 points

RUSSIA - Barkli - SIlver Medal with 216 points

FRANCE - Maubeuge - Bronze Medal with 200 points

VFS
European Championships

FRANCE - Gold Medal with 181 points

NORWAY - Silve Medal with 80 points

POLAND - Bronze Medal with 48 points

VFS

World Cup

UEA  - SD Nexus - Gold Medal with 190 points

FRANCE -4Speed SD - Silve Medal with 181 points

NORWAY - Blue Pelican  - Bronze Medal with 80 points

 14.00 - Round 10 of the Fromation Skydiving 4-Way Female - both score 20 points.  We have a tie and now a Jump Off Round.

In the packing tent when the French Girls realised they were still one jump away from a Gold or Silver medal.

They will be joined in the aircraft by Sweden and Russia 4-Way Female teams who are tieing for third place in the European Championships.

 
  10.00  The Formation Skydiving 8-Way Competitions are over:

European Championships:

FRANCE - Gold Medal Winners with 213 points

RUSSIA -  Silver Medal Winners with 173 points

UNITED KINGDOM  -   Bronze Medal Winners with 115 points

World Cup

FRANCE - Aerodyne Maubeuge - Gold Medal Winners

RUSSIA -  Barkli - Silver Medal Winners

FRANCE - Espoirs Maubeuge - Bronze Medal Winners

Congratulations to the medal winners and all the competitors for a really good competition.

7.45 am  15 minutes call to the first VFS teams to jump today.

An exciting morning ahead although France is in an unassailable lead in 8-way and Belgium in the 4-way the girls are going to take it to the wire and the UAE are in a comfortable 1st place in VFS. 

France, Aerodyne Maubeuge 8-way on their way to the aircraft for Round 10.

FS Judges waiting to judge the last round 8-way.

16/08/2013 Banjaluka BiH

Throughout the competition - Live Results available - follow this link

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

Day 3.  

Artistic Events first event has completed: 

Freefly:

In both the European Championships and World Cup

FRANCE  are the Gold Medal Winners - Total 60.00 Points

RUSSIA  are the Silver Medal Winners - Total 56.5 Points

NORWAY are the Bronze Medal Winners - Total 51.4 Points

Freestyle is finalised:

FRANCE have the first three places giving them Gold Silver and Bronze in the Artistice Event World Cup.

but for the European Championships the result is:

FRANCE Babylon -  Gold Medal Winners with 62.4 poits

FRANCE Solaris -    Silver Medal Winners with 60.3 points

RUSSIA 1 -                  Bronze Medal Winners with 45.3 points

Congratulations to all the medal winners and to all the competitors for a great competition.

Formation Skydiving

20.20  The Round 8 4-way Female continued the excitement - France scored 23 points - the USA 20 (two busts) so we are back to a tie for first place - bodes well for an exciting finish tomorrow.

18.30  The end of the day and a real surprise - the USA Golden Knights Female 4 scored 21 points on round 7 - the French 17 -  The USA is now in first position with a 3 point advantage.  An exciting end is in store.

17.00 hrs  Round 9 of 8-way completed with France consoildating their lead and dominance in this year's competition.   France has received 3 "busts" during the 9 rounds and Russia a total of 4 - the turning point is obviously France's 30 points in round 5 gave them a huge advantage. 

The 4-Way Female event at the end of Round 6 has France in the lead by 1 point having conceded a point to USA Golden Knights Female 4.  The fight for third place between the two UK teams widened with Bodyflight Isis now on 100 points and Kaizen on 96.

Round 7 of 4-way just completed with no change in the placings at the top.

The plan for today was to complete VFS, take the 8-way to the end of round 9, leaving one round for tomorrow and the 4-way (open and female) to the completion of round 8 - so 2 rounds for the morning. 

However, by 12.00 VFS was put on a weather hold - caused by the SUN - that has got to be a first!  The Drop Zone was visited today by the Commander of EUFOR, Major General Dieter Heidecker of Austria.  An ex-parachuter himself he was very interested in the competition and spent some time here this morning.

8.00 An early start for the 8-way and VFS teams this morning.  Beautiful day, no sign of the clouds of the past couple of days.  It will be interesting to see if France's 8-way  increases their lead over the rest of the field - curreently 28 points ahead of Russia with France's 2nd team 5 points behind the Russians.

UAE have established a 6 point advantage over France in VFS with Norway 3rd but not in the same league (yet).  Meanwhile this afternoon the hot competition between France and USA 4-way Female continues - the last round saw France pull ahead by 2 points with 5 rounds still to be jumped.  The two UK teams are in 3rd and 4th positions fighting their own battle.

Hayabusa (Belgium) are well established in first position in the 4-way Open (continuing this afternoon) with Russia 2nd and France in 3rd position - the real competition is taking place further down the table.

Artistic Events continue this afternoon also having already completed 5 rounds:  France is in 1st place, Russia 2nd and Norway 3rd.  The French boys have scored 9.0 points in each of their free routines.  France is dominating Freestyle with teams in all 3 placings.  We shall see what today brings.

FS Judges and the Jury arrive for work

15/08/2013 Banjaluka, BiH

Throughout the competition - Live Results available - follow this link

Breaking News - first Videos available on YouTube - follow the link and the Playlists. 

Day 2:    A simple but effective opening ceremony yesterday evening formally started the FAI European Championships and World Cups in Formation Skydiving and Artistic Events.  Competitors paraded behind their national flags onto the stage one at a time - and were applauded by everyone. 

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14/08/13, Banjaluka, BiH

Throughout the competition - Live Results available - follow this link 

Day 1  18.30  The DZ is preparing for the opening ceremony, scheduled for 19.00 hrs tonight. 

It has been a good first day - In the Formation Skydiving competitions 3 rounds completed in 4-Way, 2 in 4-Way Female - 2 in 8-Way and 1 in VFS.  In the Artistic Events competitions 3 rounds in Freefly and 1 in Freestyle with the 2nd being judged as I write.

We should have the videos of today's jumps on YouTube by the morning providing we have a good internet connection.

-13.00 last lift today for 4-way and 4-way Female with 2 rounds completed.  In the 4-way open Belgium Hayabusa are already 3 points ahead of Russia Barkli and France Maubeuge in third place 10 points adrift.  The positions remained the same at the end of Round 3, 5 points between Belgium and Russia and 8 between 2nd and the French in third.

The soaking their kit received this morning did not seem to have upset the French girls, who are in first place with 48 points closely followed by the USA with 47 and the UK's Kaizen in third with 37. 

This is going to be a good competition!

There were complaints during the morning about the DZ TV only giving the first view as the FS judges worked, and the  judges score sheet was only visible for a very short time.  Ted Wagner of OmniSkore made some quick coding changes - following agreement from the FS Judges that all viewings they had should be shown  - and the changes was appreciated by the competitors. 

8.00 a.m. wheels off with 4-Way Open and 8.10 with Freefly.  The Jury Notice was published yesterday and the signed copy publically displayed before the Competitors Briefing yesterday evening.

After all the competitors had left the work started on errecting the public display screens - the cable the organiser had been waiting for arrived from Zagreb.  Ted Wagner of OmniSkore worked late with their IT people to enable them to take the live judging images from OmniSkore's system.  Given the equipment the organiser  had the image is not perfect, it is compressed (slightly) top to bottom - but with a lot of hard work and persistance the public display system is operational before the start of the competition.

Last night there was a tremendous electrical storm and very heavy rain at the DZ.  This morning the French team discover that the corner of the hanger allocated to them to leave their rigs and equipment was under water - and so were all their kit!  The 4-way Female team and Artistic Events competitors were the worst affected.  They were stringing up temporary washing lines in the hanger using old rigging line.

Artistic Events aircraft were halted after the 2nd round to give the French a chance to get their kit dried out.  By 11.00 they were ready to go and so the event contined as scheduled.

13/08/13 Banjaluka, BiH

Day -1, Banjaluka

8.00 a.m. Aircraft take off for the first of the Official Practice Jumps.  Blue skies and a full day in prospect. 

Talking with the competitors last night the general concesus seems to be - well organised, eveyone is helpful and willing to make every effort to make this meet a success.  Great atmosphere. 

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12/08/13 Bankaluka, BiH

Day -2, Banjaluka

Two days to go before the official Opening of the European Championships and World Cup’s in Artisitic Events and Formation Skydiving in a HOT Banjaluka.

Today is the meeting and greeting day – officially for the judges and the teams are arriving ready for official practice tomorrow.

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World Games 2013 - Day 4: Victory for Feraric and Romanenko in Paragliding Accuracy - Closing Ceremony

Slovenian Matjaz Feraric took the Gold at the Paragliding Accuracy competition of the World Games 2013 in Cali, Colombia. Tomas Lednik from Czech Republic took Silver and Tanapat Luangiam from Thailand Bronze (see picture).
In the female category, the Gold medal went to Lithuanian Jolanta Romanenko, while Silver was taken by Nunnapat Phuchong from Thailand and Bronze by Milica Marinkovic from Serbia.

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