Dubai: France were crowned champions in the Freestyle Skydiving event that concluded on Tuesday at the 4th Dubai International Parachuting Championship (DIPC) being held at Skydive Dubai.
The French team, represented by Will Penny, completed the seven jumps with a cumulative score of 63.4 points, way ahead of Finland’s 50.4, while Venezuela came in third after nipping the US by just 1.3 points.
The fifth and final position was taken by the UAE team of Nada Attia and Stefania Martinengo, who put up a great performance for their first performance together as a pair.
France is leading the FS 4-Way Female category as well after the completion of seven rounds. France is comfortably ahead by a whopping 26 points, while Norway looks assured of a second place as they are 19 points clear of hosts UAE who occupy third place as Canada look to threaten them in fourth.
In the Formation Skydiving (FS) 4-Way Open category, after seven rounds it was Belgium at the top of the standings followed by Russia and USA in the first three spots.
Meanwhile, the UAE continued its dominance in the 8-way Formation Skydiving (FS) and the 4-way Vertical Formation Skydiving (VFS) after seven days of competition.
After five jumps, the UAE was at the top of the table in the 8-way FS with a total of 79 points, followed by Monaco in second place with 74 points and Russia in third with 73 points.
In the 4-way VFS competition, the UAE is in a much better position as leaders with 129 points after five rounds of jumps. World champion France is the closest team challenging the hosts in second spot with 114 points, while Poland has been clinging on to third place with 38 points.
The annual Dubai International Parachuting Championship is being held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council.
The event is being organised by the Emirates Aero Sport Federation in coordination with Skydive Dubai and is scheduled to conclude with the last round of jumps on December 9. Entry to the event is absolutely free and further information may be got from the official website at www.dipc.ae.
