Dubai: Russia and France picked up gold medals while hosts the UAE took one silver and established a new national record at the conclusion of the fifth day of competition in the Fifth Dubai International Parachuting Championship (DIPC) being held at Skydive Dubai at The Palm.

At the end of five days on Tuesday evening, Russia took the gold medal in the Artistic Event Freefly competition, while France won the Canopy Formation 2-way sequential competition.

The hosts UAE won their first silver medal of this competition after the national team finished behind Russia in the Artistic Event Freefly contest, leaving France to take the bronze medal.

After the eighth and final round of the Canopy Formation 2-way Sequential it was France at the top of the standings with 189 points for an average of 27, followed by the USA in second with a total of 168 and an average of 24, while Russia edged out France for the bronze with a total of 165 points.

Switzerland’s Christian Labhart was the pick of the competitors in the Individual Speed Skydiving final as he completed the competition with a total of 1,451.76 points to take the gold medal. Moritz Friess of Germany won the silver with a total of 1,304.22 points and Russia’s Dmitry Gmyzin knocked off Switzerland’s Markus Fuchs to win the bronze with a total of 1,294.76 points.

The UAE’s new national record came in the Formation Skydiving 8-way competition when the team established a new mark of 23 points. In this competition, the eight participants are given a time frame of 50 seconds to make as many formations as possible while being air-borne after making the jump. The current world record in this category stands at 31 points.

Meanwhile, Wednesday witnessed the start of the Canopy Piloting competition in five different categories. Now in its fifth year, the annual DIPC is hosting competitions in 12 different categories for men, women and juniors with participation from more than 1,000 jumpers representing 42 countries.

The last day of the championships is December 7 where a total of more than Dh1.5 million will be distributed to various individuals and teams.

RESULTS

Artistic Event Freefly: 1. Russia 61.4pts; 2. UAE 55.8; 3. France 55.3.

Canopy Formation 2-way Sequential: 1. France 189pts; 2. USA 168; 3. Russia 165.

Canopy Formation 4-way Rotation (after five rounds) 1. Russia 83pts; 2. Belarus 76; 3. Kazakhstan 63.

Canopy Formation 4-way Sequential (after five rounds) 1. France 45pts; 2. Russia 29; 3. Qatar 25.

Formation Skydiving 4-way Female (after nine rounds) 1. France 178pts; 2. USA 132; 3. Great Britain 126.

Formation Skydiving 4-way Open (after nine rounds) 1. Canada 233pts; 2. Belgium 222; 3. USA 221.

Individual Speed Skydiving: 1. Christian Labhart (Switzerland) 1,451.76; 2. Moritz Friess (Germany) 1,304.22; 3. Dmitry Gmyzin (Russia) 1,294.76; 4. Markus Fuchs (Switzerland) 1,271.56; 5. Luc Maisin (Belgium) 1,267.74.

Formation Skydiving 4-way VFS: 1. Canada 76pts; 2. Poland 5.

Formation Skydiving 8-way (after four rounds) 1. France 74pts; 2. Russia 71; 3. UAE 69.

Women’s Individual Accuracy: 1. Nataliya Nikitsiuk (Belarus); 2. Natalia Zimina (Belarus); 3. Svetlana Klenina (Russia); 3. Deborah Ferrand (France).

Junior Women’s Individual Accuracy: 1. Leocadie Ollivier de Pury (France); 2. Alena Shkilenko (Russia); 3. Maryia Chornaya (Belarus); 3. Darja Shastakovich (Belarus).

Men’s Individual Accuracy: 1. Dmitrii Maksimov (Russia); 1. Kaiyuan Zhang (China); 3. Jie Feng (China); 3. Ilia Poz (China); 3. Hussain Ebrahim (Bahrain); 3. Magnus Falk (Sweden); 3. Michael Alpfors (Sweden).

Juniors Men’s Individual Accuracy: 1. Tong Meng (China); 1. Anton Sayevich (Belarus); 1. Fabio Fornallaz (Switzerland); 4. Xiaodong Guo (China).

Accuracy Landing Team (after four rounds) 1. China; 2. China Juniors; 3. Russia; 4. Slovenia; 5. Belarus Female; 6. Germany.

-Ends