Kopassus, Russia share the glory

JAKARTA (JP): Chutists from the National Army's elite forces Kopassus and their Russian rivals shared the limelight at the Kopassus international skydiving championships in Serang, West Java on Saturday.

In the absence of major rival Thailand, the Kopassus team scored 48 points to come through as the runaway winner in the five-round Canopy Relative Work event. Malaysia finished second with 26, followed by Singapore which collected 21 points.

Russian skydivers set the pace from the start to win the Relative Work competition with 37 points. National Police's Polsugar A team racked up 30 points for the second place, ahead of National Air Forces team with 20.

Old-crack chutist Theo Mandagi of Polsugar A continued his domination of the accuracy event in the men's parachuting competition. Theo, who has produced five "dead centers" out of his six attempts was on his way to taking the gold medal. He scored the smallest level of error at 0.02, with one attempt remaining.