19 teams from around the world entered the A category FS this year at the Bedford World Challenge. 10 of those were British which highlights the fact that Bedford is and always will be the place to come and compete against the rest of the World, in ANY Category!

Close Contest

What I particularly liked about this category was that from the start, it was obvious after a few rounds that it would be a close contest. There were a few familiar player coached teams in the mix but it was without doubt fair and square. Fire Coopers (CZE) and Equinox (LTU) fought to the last round for second and third place.

Training choices

For all A category teams, training would have been very limited. Half the competitors would have only just been promoted from Rookie and the other half with maybe more experience, but thrown together with possibly no previous training at all. If you had one hour of tunnel time to train before the meet, how much time would you spend on just random flying? Its actually a tough question. I will tell you that for the winning team in A (Bahrain) we spent two hours a day for several days just walking the new blocks.

Black Magic

Bodyflight Black Magic put the pressure on most of the teams with their outstanding performance executing all blocks and randoms, whilst back flying! This also helped to add some excitement and fun. I remember seeing Joey Jones doing this for fun in a team in Deland [Deland Black Majik] 10 years ago.

I enjoyed being a part of this excellent category more than I thought I would. I would gladly be a part of it again next year!

Aaron Faith, Coach, Bahrain

ChatterChicks

Bodyflight World Challenge 2014 was my second appearance at this meet and it has still got to be one of my favourite competitions in the skydiving calendar. The team I fly with, ChatterChicks were competing in Single A this year after entering Rookie last year and spending the rest of the season training and competing in Single A. We over the moon with our own performance as a team and this year we felt we were really part of the competition. For once, our category was undoubtedly made up of ‘true’ Single A teams. In other words, there weren’t one or two teams taking the lead head and shoulders above everyone else.

Close fight

Bahrain, the winning team put out a strong performance from the first round and Fire Coopers (CZ) and Equinox (LT) who also flew to a high and consistent standard took second and third place. We personally had our own competition for fourth place but ended up placing fifth, two points behind Italian team Sardegna. There were plenty of other close calls between the Single A teams and I know many had their own personal battles going on (half the league table is a mix-match of Irish vs UK).

Good humour

Having said that, the mood surrounding this category in comparison to competing in Rookie in 2013 felt much more positive with more interaction and encouragement between the teams. Looking at the scoreboard you can see that there was a consistent pattern in the final scores, ascertaining that all teams belonged in this category. Of course, we were aware of other categories that were experiencing defeat from much higher caliber teams but thankful this year we were not affected by this.

Shout-outs

To Team Meteor who took Rookie Bronze at UK Nationals 2013, for taking their achievements and doing the honest sportsmanship thing and moving up a category. Also a massive hand should go to Mel Knudsen from Danish team Funzies who competed at such a high standard with only 23 jumps! And finally, one of the things that made the competition for myself and my team this year was the amazing use of technology… the ability to check the manifest, live scores and draws online and also how quickly the rounds were being scored. Not to mention the new World Challenge TV that although I didn’t get round to watching over the weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed watching over the days when I got home.

Robynne Hayes, Chatterchicks