Dubai: France and Canada kept themselves within striking distance of more medals, while jumpers from Belarus excelled in the individual competitions at the end of sixth day of the Fifth Dubai International Parachuting Championship (DIPC) at Skydive Dubai on Wednesday.
Russia had picked up a couple of gold medals and France had won one gold at the end of three disciplines that had been completed on Tuesday. Russia was crowned champions in the Canopy Formation 4-Way Rotation and the Artistic Event Freefly contest, while France had topped in the Canopy Formation 2-Way Sequential.
At the end of the sixth day on Wednesday, France was holding on to the lead in the Canopy Formation 4-Way Sequential, Formation Skydiving 8-Way Open and Formation Skydiving 4-Way Female categories, while Canada led the Formation Skydiving 4-Way Open and Vertical Formation Skydiving 4-Way contests.
After nine rounds in Formation Skydiving 4-Way Open, Canada was leading the 12 other countries with a tally of 233 points, followed by Belgium (222), USA (221) and Russia (192) in the next three spots.
Canada also looked set for a second medal after seven of the eight rounds in the 4-Way Vertical Formation Skydiving as they totalled 131 points compared to second-placed Poland with eleven points.
France was also in the hunt in the Formation Skydiving 4-Way for women as they led with 178 points followed by the USA in second (132 points), while Great Britain (126), Germany (124) and Canada (123) remained in third, fourth and fifth places respectively.
France was at the top of the standings in the Formation Skydiving 8-Way Open category after eight rounds with 143 points followed by the UAE with 139 points in second and Russia in third with 137 points.
The French team also looked strong to win the Canopy Formation 4-Way Sequential as they led with 57 points, followed by Russia and Qatar with 38 and 30 points respectively.
Meanwhile, it was the jumpers from Belarus who were impressive in the individual competitions with Nataliya Nikitsuik and Natalia Zimina separated by just one point at the top of the table in the women’s Individual Accuracy after five rounds. In third was Svetlana Klenina of Russia, while fellow Russian Olga Lepezina and Frenchwoman Deborah Ferrand remained tied in fourth.
In the junior women’s Individual Accuracy, France’s Leocadie Ollivier de Pury continued leading ahead of Darja Shastakovich of Belarus, Ling Zhang of China and Maryia Chornaya, also of Belarus.
Russia’s Dmitrii Maksimov continued to lead the men’s Individual Accuracy midway through the ten-round competition, while the junior men’s category had a new leader as Belarussian Anton Sayevich overtook China’s Tong Meng.
China managed to hold off Russia and Slovenia in the Accuracy Landing for teams. China had scores of 3, 2, 4, 3 and 1 for a total of 13 after five rounds, while Russia and Slovenia were in pursuit with 16 points apiece.
