EC's & WC's in FS, AE, CF, SP, Saarlouis, Germany. Arrival Day
18.00
The general briefing by the organiser welcoming everyone to this Championships and thanking all for coming, it is an excellent turnout and exceeds the number of teams that entered in 2011 (the last time this organiser held a European Championships and World Cup). He was followed by Dr. Rainer 'Exi" Hoenle, IPC President and also Meet Director for this competition. He explained the plan for the start of the competiton at 9.00 am tomorrow, starting with 4-Way Open, 4-Way Female and VFS - followed by a second round of each. This should take us through to about mid-day when we would switch to CF 2-Way, AE and Speed skydiving with the aim to complete two rounds of all events before stopping at 16.30 in order to change and get to the Opening Ceremony to be held in the Centre of Saarlouis starting at 18.00.
On behalf of the German Federation, Helmut Bastuck, welcomed the competitors before
introducing the Meet Director, Dr Rainer 'Exi' Hoenle
The gathered group of competitors then split up into their individual disciplines for their briefings.
Formation Skydiving made their draw, the same draw to be used for all four events, 4-Way Open, 4-Way Female, VFS and 8-Way:
| Rd. No | |||||
| 1 | L | - O | - F | - K | - 11 |
| 2 | C | - 3 | - 7 | ||
| 3 | 13 | - 2 | - G | ||
| 4 | 1 | - 17 | - 20 | ||
| 5 | 5 | - E | - 21 | ||
| 6 | 6 | - 8 | - A | ||
| 7 | D | - 4 | - P | - 22 | |
| 8 | M | - 10 | - J | - B | |
| 9 | 18 | - H | - N | - 9 | |
| 10 | Q | - 15 | -14 | ||
| JO | 12 | - 16 | - 19 |
Canopy Formation Draw was also made: 2-Way Sequential
| RD. No | |||||
| 1 | D | D | F | A | E |
| 2 | F | E | D | F | C |
| 3 | F | F | E | D | E |
| 4 | A | B | E | F | F |
| 5 | B | D | E | A | C |
| 6 | F | D | E | F | A |
| 7 | F | B | D | C | D |
| 8 | F | C | C | A | F |
| JO | C | D | B | C | D |
14.00 hrs.
Everyone is settling into the routine here. Following a very nice lunch, teams are still jumping using the time and aircraft available (2 Caravans) to make their training and practice jumps. The last aircraft call will be made at 16.15 and then we will prepare for the competitors meetings and draws and the official start to this World Meet.
Today those teams and competitors who had not arrived and registrered during the optional practice period are arriving today. The sun is shining and the atmosphere is great. The aircraft are already busy.
There are 28 Nations represented and Greece is here for the first time in over 10 years, so welcome to Theodoros Douzenis their Speed Competitor, we all wish you a great experience here at your first world meet.
In total there are 50 Formation Skydiving teams which means we are expecting a great competition : 30 4-Way Open, 7 4-Way Female, 6 VFS and 7 8-Way. Artistic Events have a total of 18 team entries, 8 in Freestyle and 10 in Freefly. Canopy Formation, after much trepidation on whether there would be enough teams to qualify for an FCE the competition has ended up with 7 2-Way Sequential teams. Speed Skydiving has a healthy entry of 24 competitors.
Often when the First Category Events are held in Europe (hence the European Cup) we get few entries from the rest of the world qualifying for the World Cup, but this year we have entries from Argentina, Australia, Canada and USA.
Three photographs of Registration courtesy of Casi Theil
