Sun, 23 Jun 1996

French team takes all the the golds at parachuting meet

By Primastuti Handayani

LIDO, West Java (JP): Unchallenged from the outset, the French team finally swept all the gold medals in the three events of the Sixth World Championships in Canopy Formation here yesterday.

The high-riding Frenchmen also produced two new world records in the process; in the four-way canopy rotation and in the eight- way speed formation events.

However, their attempt to attain another world mark failed when they failed to improve the world record in the four-way sequential event, which was set by the United States team by displaying 16 formations in 180 seconds in Australia in 1994.

The French team extended its world record in the four-way canopy rotation event on the opening day of the championship by producing 22 points. The French team garnered 21 points in Australia in 1994.

The team, which produced a total of 146 rotations in eight jumps, also collected another 22 points in its final jump yesterday.

France's closest rival, Italy, came second by only two points. The team produced 144 points from eight jumps.

The Indonesian team, which was represented by members of the Army's Special Forces, failed to fulfill its ambition to secure the seventh position it won in the previous event.

The team, which just won the Malaysia Open parachuting championships last month, dropped to 11th place.

The French team also won the four-way sequential event by producing a total of 79 formations. Its highest score, of 13 points, was in the second jump.

Defending champion the United States, which holds the world record, took second place by producing a total of 70 rotations in the four-way sequential event.

Indonesia, which was represented by members of the Aves Club from Bandung, West Java, came last; only managing to display 14 formations in its eight jumps.

The team, whose preparation was just a month's training in the United States, was only able to produce three formations during the championships.

A member of Aves, Dadang Kadarusman, earlier said that during the overseas stint, the team's highest score was five.

France continued its domination when it produced another perfect performance in the eight-way speed formation by clocking a total of 223.96 seconds in eight jumps.

France sharpened its own individual record, which was produced in Australia in 1994 in 29 seconds, in the first jump by clocking 27.46 seconds.

The record only lasted for two days before the team shaved 0.07 seconds off the mark with a performance of 27.39 seconds on Thursday.

Michael Balisky, a member of the team, said that the team's success in breaking the old record was due to perfect teamwork.

France, which was represented by a combination of military officers and civilians, prepared for two years.

The United States came second by clocking a total time of 238.32 seconds from eight jumps. The team's record was 29.73, which was produced in the seventh jump yesterday.

The Indonesian team, which consists of the Army's and the Air Force's Special Forces, once again came last.

The eight-way speed formation is a new event for the host' team, which only had one month to prepare for the championships.