Weather continues to interrupt parachuting c'ship

By Primastuti Handayani

LIDO, West Java (JP): Hazy weather and strong wind continue to disrupt the programs at the Sixth World Parachuting Championships on Canopy Formation here.

The organizer has had to halt the competition a number or times due to recurring bad weather since the first day of the championship, which started on Sunday.

However, the organizer is optimistic that the championships will finish on schedule. The competition features four-way canopy rotation, four-way sequential and eight-way speed formation.

"We can finish all the events before the closing ceremony on Sunday," Ahmed Solihin, the organizer's program coordinator, said yesterday.

"We'll boost the competition early in the morning every day to finish all the scheduled events," he added.

By international rules each participant's points are valid if each team has jumped five times, which is 60 percent of the eight jumps.

"We only need to execute the last jump for four-way sequential and two more jumps for the eight-way speed formation. We'll continue with the three jumps for all events if the weather permits," Ahmed said.

The natural disruption has begun daily at midday and lasted until before sunset.

Yesterday, three jumps in the four-way sequential event were completed.

Indonesia, which failed to display a formation in its first jump on Tuesday, improved by making two formations twice in its second and fourth jumps yesterday.

Unfortunately, the team, members of the Aves Club in Bandung, West Java, was only able to display one formation in its third jump.

The host team, which only had one month's preparation, is likely to come in at last position because of the tight competition.

Defending champion, the United States, has completed five jumps. The team became holder of the world record when it produced 16 formations in three minutes in Australia in 1994,

But the team, which placed second after displaying 11, 10, 10 and 10 formations, failed to beat the high-riding French who had only performed four jumps.

The French team, which dominates the championships, still has one more chance to complete the event. The team displayed 13, 12 and 10 formations in its second, third and fourth jumps yesterday.

France, which displayed 10 formations in its first jump on Tuesday, will take the lead if it can feature at least six formations in its last jump.

Switzerland and Canada shared third position yesterday as both teams produced average formations of eight.

Switzerland, which displayed seven formations in the first jump, featured 10, eight and eight formations in the second, third and fourth jumps.

While Canada, the 2,000-crowd favorite, displayed 11 formations in the second jump. But the team failed to repeat its performance and was only able to display six and two formations in the third and fourth jumps.

South Africa finished its fifth jump by displaying two formations in the first to fourth jumps. The team successfully improved by displaying three formation in the final jump yesterday.