Day 2 - Competition Day
Saturday 7th July 2018
9.30 Competition is over (apart from one re-jump)
we have our new World Champion
CONGRATULATIONS
 |
Abdulbari Qubaisi (UAE)
Pablo Hernandez Moll (ESP) in second place and Justin Price (USA) in third (subject to ratification - made official at 14.50hrs)
6.00 Early start to a day full of prospects - but no possibility of records as there are no record categories in Freestyle. The good news is that all the records set during the 7th FAI World Canopy Piloting Championships have been ratified by the FAI. Great news and fulfilling the intent of the IPC Bureau when they introduced the 'new' application system for competition records last year. So congratulations again to our new Record Holders:
 |  |  |  |  |
| Cornelia Mahia (UAE) | Nicholas Batsch (USA) | Arthur Carneiro Lima (BRA) | Cedric Veiga Rios (FRA) | Christopher Teague (RSA) |
| World & North American | North American (two) | South American | European (two) | African |
| Speed - Female | Dragged Distance | Speed | Speed | Speed |
7.00 am
Round one is completed, results (unofficial) are one the web-site and there have been some spectacular runs and landings!
 |
Our meet organiser with something to keep the crowd amused during breaks in the jumping - and the crowds are already here in the stands. Marek knows how to keep them interested - he already has over a million hits on the competition facebook page and a huge number of followers. Even yesterday evening for the end of jumping and the balloons he had over 1,000 spectators in the stands. Today he has the three largest TV companies in Poland here and they are all impressed, including the journalist from the leading Polish newspaper - who commented that this event was so spectacular it should be in the Olympics! Marek has also organised the main Polish Radio company to be here. His work with promoting this event for our sport is an example for all organisers.
 |
| IPC President Gillian Rayner joins Jury member Pia Begrren and spectators on the stands |
 |  |
9.00 round two completed, with a few rejumps due to wind - it is doing as was promised, creeping up on us. Hopefully it will only give us occasional gusts and we can complete the competition, as Round 3 is now underway.
10.00 The plan is to have the Competitors' Meeting at 11.30 hrs. At the moment the judges are checking all the scores before they are issued as official and posted on the notice board (after which we have to allow 2 hours during which a competitor may make a protest) before they are final.
11.30 Start of the competitors' meeting. The whole of the committee, other than Alberto (due to his health problems) was present. Bjorn stated that the meeting would be divided between the 'classic events' first followed by Freestyle. He stated there were to be no real rule changes to the classic events - all were happy. There were suggestions from the floor that the committee considered the use of a camera on each gate (accuracy). This was used at other competitions and worked well, enabling competitors to call for a video review if they were penalised, which led to a strong expression from all there about the slowness in the posting of results. The committee were also asked to consider the possibility of a practice jump once the start lists had been established to 'try them out'. There was also a request to use the rule which allowed reverse order of jumping for the final round - fulfilling the requirement to make our sport exciting and is excellent for the public. Ian asked if the reduced wind speed limit for accuracy was OK, as he felt it was only needed in a tail wind situation. There was also a question about the design of bougies used here; in two parts - how did the meeting feel about them. Although it was understood the intent behind them (speed of change, ability to ensure their height) the center needed to be capable of fixture to the ground; the general feeling was not to have them for future FCEs.
 |
We then moved to Freestyle and there were lots of suggestions from the floor, many of which were ideas that had been tried in the past and dismissed for a variety of reasons but there was plenty for the committee to discuss; as one would expect from a first World Championships. There were strong feelings expressed about competitors understanding how their performances had been judged and looking for more feedback from the judges as to 'why' they were given the scores they were (and others given more or less than they expected!). A good idea was that the judges gave feedback on the degrees of difficulty they saw from the drama sheet and this would be fed back to the competitor. A vote was taken on the repetition of the same move for each round - allowed or not. The vote was 2 for and the majority no. A lot of discussion also around introducing a compulsory round but was voted against 26 to 18. The committee would continue to clarify and give more guidance for moves. They suggested that competitors submitted videos to the judges of new moves they suggest for inclusion; also the judges plan to try and put together a collection of training videos and ask competitors to submit them to the judges.
|
George Blythe then made his presentation to the competitors about the Swoop World Championships, how it had come about, who they were and what they planned for the future. There was a lot of interest from the competitors, in particular the fact that from next year they intend to open up the selection and invited competitors to visit their site and complete the application forms.
Finally at 14.50 the final results were signed off by the Chief Judge. We now prepare for the Prize Giving at 19.30, following the balloon festival. We will publish a report on the Prizegiving tomorrow.
