Night and day; black and white; heaven and hell – such is the contrast between Thursday and the rest of the meet. Glorious sunshine all day, easily the best weather for the last 2 weeks, the drop zone has been powering through the competition programme in all the events, and the atmosphere on the DZ is fantastic. You have the feeling, this is what it was supposed to be like.
Some of the competitors have been champing at the bit to skydive and were rewarded by doing half the competition in a single day; 5 jumps. Everyone is happy, at least with the amount of freefall. The Jury okayed an hour earlier start for the meet, in order to catch up for lost time.
4-way FS
The 4-way competitors have virtually been on stand-by since the beginning and now faced an even earlier start. In recognition of this, the management cracked through two fast rounds of 4-way open and female, and then gave them the rest of the day off. You would think they would be so bored with the DZ by now they would have headed straight out but an overwhelming amount chose to stay and watch, revelling in the transformation to a carnival-like atmosphere and enjoying cheering on their comrades.
4-way Open
The battle for the top three is happening in earnest; Belgium, USA and Canada. The Belgians are looking strong 3 points ahead, winning the first two rounds, and drawing with USA’s Airspeed on round 3. A fascinating battle is going on with Airspeed and Evolution, who have tied one round, and taken one point from each other in the other two. The Canadians had their sights set on a podium place but who would have thought they would be so far ahead of France, 15 points after 3 rounds. It looks almost certain that the top 3 now will be the guys on the podium at the end of the meet, but it’s still anyone’s game as to what colour medal they will be wearing. There is a fast-looking jump coming up in round 5 (O, 14, A, P) that could be a game-changer. France and Russia, frequent medallists follow behind, then Germany, then UAE leading the pack with an 18.3 average.
4-way Female
The French and Golden Knights look very evenly matched, on identical scores, and round for round. A similar battle is going on between UK and Canada for the bronze medal, with Kaizen edging in front from yesterday despite losing a couple of points to a kiss from their cameraman. This is going to be an awesome competition to watch, with 7 rounds to go.
8-way FS
Five 8-way jumps today, with a comfortable pace, although a long day. Round 4 got all the teams excited: M, 4,1 (double spiders, snowflake-in-out, donut flake-donut flake), a classic feel-good dive you do at the weekend or the end of a training camp to see how cool you are. This had potential for a high score to move position on the leaderboard, or even to beat the Golden Knights’ world record score of 31, which has surprisingly stood since 1997. The excitement could be felt in almost all of the teams dirt diving – but of course that can be a nemesis as it’s so easy to over-amp.
This puzzle was the old UK team’s signature dive (VNE) but their energy was mis-placed, with a bust on the second point and some rushing leading to inaccuracy. UAE made the tactical move of bringing in their alternate, Angie from the female 4-way, to replace their least experienced member for this ‘’burner’ dive.. but although she did a fine job there were problems elsewhere with brain locks, and a bust, doubtless caused by the added adrenalin. Everyone was excited to see if the Golden Knights could beat their own record… but their Point lost his footing on the step and all but funnelled the exit, ending up underneath the launch, causing an 11-second build. After this bad start the Knights looked (almost) flawless and scored a 26 with one bust.
The teams in the pack generally fared better. M8trix the Netherlands team did a fine job of handling the pressure, cranking out a 17, one of their best ever scores. The Australians kicked out an 18 with a great jump.
Tomorrow’s forecast is perfect, early starts are planned again, and there is an excited buzz of anticipation that after all, we will complete the meet.
Check the latest scores on Omniskore
Nexr World Championships article (by Lesley)
Previous World Championships article (by Lesley)
Third World Championships article (by Joel)
Second World Championships article (by Lesley)
