Indonesia to host parachuting c'ships

Indonesia to host parachuting c'ships

JAKARTA (JP): The 6th World Parachuting Championships this
June in Jakarta will be a prelude to the Indonesia Air Show, an
official said yesterday.

Executive chairman of the Indonesian Aero Sport Federation,
Vice Marshal Purnomo Sidhi, said that he would arrange for
participants of the championships to join a massive free fall
during the international show.

"It will be the first time in the world that parachutists are
given a chance to take part in an international air show,"
Purnomo said.

The world championships, specialized in "canopy relative work
events", are scheduled from June 14 to 24 at Lido Lake, Bogor,
West Java, about 70 kilometers south of the capital. The
Indonesia Air Show will take place from June 22 to July 10 at the
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

The world canopy relative work competition is held every even
years, while the accuracy and relative work competitions are
staged together every odd year. Indonesia hosted international
parachuting meets in Bali in 1989 and 1991.

Purnomo said that the offer to include parachutists in the air
show would make them interested in taking part in the
championships. "It will be good promotion for the air show."

Purnomo said that parachuting teams from the United States,
the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Russia,
France, Canada and Australia have confirmed their entry.

Gold medals in four-way rotation, four-way sequential and
eight-way formation events are at stake at the world parachuting
meet.

Committee chairman Ahmed Solihin said that 22 countries are
expected to turn up for the championships, four more than at the
previous meet in Australia.

Ahmed, one of the federation's training directors, said that
Indonesia had set a modest target for the championships.
Indonesia took the seventh place in 1990, its highest ranking
ever.

The federation has groomed 18 parachutists from the special
forces of the Army and Air Force as well as from the non-military
Aves Club Bandung. Fourteen will be chosen for the biennial
event.

Purnomo said that the organizers set the budget for the
championships at Rp 2.3 billion (US$1 million), but they will
only disburse Rp 900 million for the event. "Assistance in the
form of facilities from many agencies will help us reduce the
budget," he said. (05)