Rain a threat to parachuting meet
JAKARTA (JP): Unexpected rains could disrupt the Sixth World Parachuting Championships at Lake Lido in Bogor, West Java, but organizers believe the show will go on as planned from June 14 to June 24.
Ahmed Solihin, the championships' program coordinator, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the organizers had consulted the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency about the weather forecast.
"It's strange that it has been raining lately. The forecast said that the wet season would end in April," Ahmed said.
Rains have been drenching Bogor, known as the "rain city", and have continued every afternoon since the participants began arriving last Monday. Lido lies 70 kilometers south of the capital at an altitude of 500 meters above sea level.
Ahmed said that the organizing committee has considered moving up the agenda to early in the morning as one way of getting around the weather problem. "We are going to start the competition at 7:00 and finish it, hopefully, between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.," he said.
Ahmed added that if bad weather persists, the organizers will cancel the rest of the day scheduled for June 22 to give parachutists time to complete their programs.
The organizing committee has reserved the one-day break for all participants to refresh themselves by visiting Safari Park in Cisarua, which lies near the competition site.
More than 80 of an estimated 190 jumpers from 20 countries have arrived in Lido and rehearsed for the championships. The organizers plan to hold an official rehearsal for all participants tomorrow.
Host Indonesia will field two teams in the biennial event, which specializes in canopy formations. The first team, comprised of skydivers from the Army's Special Force, will compete in the four-way canopy formation competition.
The other team, made up of members of the Aves Club from Bandung, West Java, will compete in the four-way sequential and eight-way speed formation events.
The minister of youth affairs and sports is scheduled to open the 10-day championships on Friday. (yan)