French parachuting team sets new world record
LIDO, West Java (JP): Defending champion France fulfilled its ambition to set a new world record at the Sixth World Championships on Canopy Formation here yesterday.
France, which scored 22 points on its third jump, kept the top position after producing a total of 81 points.
"We intend to keep it that way till the end," said Christopher Balisky, a member of the French team, about his team's title defending chances. The team produced the old record of 21 points at the World Championships in Australia in 1994.
The Frenchmen said that the first and second jumps were not as good as expected. "We managed to make good points on our third jump," Balisky said. France earned 20 and 18 points earlier before breaking its old world record, but it only produced 21 rotations in the fourth jump.
Italy followed France and placed second after scoring the same points, 60 until the third jump. Italy took the center after scoring 19 and 20 points in early jumps. Its team rotations increased to 21 times on its third jump.
Russia remained in third position after producing 54 points. The Russians managed to score 19 points in the first jump but only rotated 16 times in the second. However, it managed to produce another 19 rotations on its third jump.
None of the 13 participants won the people's heart like Canada. Dressed in shocking yellow and purple suits, Canada, whose parachute colors are the same as their jumpsuits, got the most applause from the more than 5,000 spectators as it displayed beautiful maneuvers during its jumps.
Canada put itself in fourth position after scoring a total of 70 points from four jumps.
The Indonesian team, which was represented by the Army's Special Forces, did a great job in early jumps. The team, which won the Malaysian Open last month, produced 12 points in the first and second jumps.
Indonesia, whose world ranking was seventh after nine rotations produced in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1990, managed to improve its record to 13 points on the third jump. But the team spoiled everything when it was only able to produce seven rotations on the fourth jump.
Ahmed Solihin, the organizer's program coordinator, told The Jakarta Post that it wanted to finish the four-way canopy rotation category before continuing with the four-way sequential and eight-way speed formation.
But the organizer had to stop the competition at around 3 p.m. due to the hazy weather, which was affecting the judges' video camera.
Skydiving enthusiasts who gathered at the Lido resort to watch the event were able to watch TV monitors, which aired the competition live.
"We'll provide four more for local spectators tomorrow," Ahmed said. Providing TV monitors on the spot is the first for the canopy formation championships, but the second after the parachuting championships in France last year. (yan)