Antonov AN-2 . . . . . with curtains!

Some of you may be wondering why only Formation Skydiving, Speed Skydiving and the Canopy Piloting Championships are currently being contested at Tanay.  In a word: Covid-19.

The organisers have been acutely aware of the difficulties thrust upon them in trying to formulate a safe and manageable Mondial in light of the on-going pandemic. Splitting the Mondial between two drop zones was the first step, whereby the two Style and Accuracy Championships would take place in Kemerovo with the remaining seven championships in Tanay. 

In view of the numbers of competitors and officials attending 7 championships, it was decided that to further lessen the risks, a sensible solution would be to stagger the start/finish dates of the various championships.  This in turn necessitated amending the arrival and departure dates for both competitors and judges.

Currently FS, SP and CP are being contested, with CP Freestyle starting tomorrow (Friday), with events continuing till Saturday 14th August. The Closing/Awards Ceremony for those particular championships will take place on Saturday evening, with Sunday being their departure day.

Sunday and Monday will see the arrival of the various delegations in respect of Artistic Events, Canopy Formation and Wingsuit Flying (Performance and Artistic), with competition jumps starting on Tuesday. These specific championships are scheduled to complete on Friday 20 August with their Closing/Awards Ceremony being held later that day. The delegations, judges and officials will depart on Saturday 21st.

The competition jumps at the Kemerovo dropzone, a 2 hours drive away, will continue until Sunday (15th) afternoon, with their Closing/Awards Ceremony scheduled later that same day. Departure day for all those in attendance will be Sunday.

Now you know.

Text by Fay Kimble

Report from Kemerovo

We had a good day even if we had to start with a long stand-by. Shortly after 4 o’clock the weather improved and the clouds disappeared, so we were able to start the first round of style. Everything went smoothly and with only one re-jump, the minimum for a valid competition was in the bag.

At about the same time as style jumping started, Mr Sergey Tsivilev, the Governor of Kemerovo Oblast had time to visit the competition site, which was an honour for everyone.  It was also good to see the happy faces of our volunteers who had time to talk with him.

The Style round was completed later in the day and luckily, we had good weather to continue with accuracy jumping.  By the end of the day we had completed the 4th round of accuracy for men. Two AN-2s were enough to keep the judges busy in the target area.

Day 2 ended just at sunset.