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British Indoor Skydiving Nationals this Weekend
The competition will select which British flyers travel to Belgium for the much-anticipated FAI World Cup in April.
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This weekend, February 12 to 13, iFLY Basingstoke will host the 2022 British Indoor Skydiving Nationals.
The winners in each of the competition’s eight categories (Freestyle, 2-way Dynamic, 4-way Dynamic, and various subsections of Formation (FS) and Vertical Formation [VFS]) will earn a ticket to represent Great Britain in the upcoming 2022 FAI World Cup in Charleroi, Belgium this April, only the fourth World Cup in the history of the sport.
13-year-old Emily King is one of many young flyers hoping to net a spot on Great Britain’s World Cup Team, in the Freestyle category. Luckily, the Basingstoke tunnel is her regular training tunnel, so she’ll be flying on home turf this weekend.
King came to the sport far earlier than most, learning to fly as a mere four-year-old, after she was given wind tunnel time as a Christmas present that year.
The toddler was hooked instantly. “I just wanted to do it again and again,” she told the Basingstoke Gazette. By the time she turned five, she was flying without the aid of an instructor. By the age of seven, she began working with an iFLY coach, and a year later she was competing.
Teams flying include IBME6, the Space Pirates, and NFTO (“Not For The Ordinary”). The latter is the famed all-female British Formation Skydive team. The four women are the reigning British Outdoor and Indoor National Champions and have previously won Silver at the 2018 Skydiving Championships, Gold at the 2018 FAI Indoor World Cup, and a Silver at both the 2019 FAI Indoor World Championships and Outdoor World Cup.
Nationals will be open to all interested competitors and teams (both local and international), but only individuals or teams “legitimately eligible to attain a sporting license to represent Great Britain and who have not represented any other country in the last 2 years” will be allowed to advance to the World Cup representing Great Britain. BISA also noted that following 2022, all British Nationals will be held in November.
Both free in-person viewing is available for the competition, as well as a virtual livestream. For interested viewers, the opening ceremony begins at 10:30 am Saturday (February 12) and finishes at 1:00 pm the following day. You can find more information on the event page here.
WATCH 2022 BRITISH NATIONALS DAY 1
WATCH 2022 BRITISH NATIONALS DAY 2
Over 400 flyers from around the world, this weekend’s British victors among them, will attend the upcoming World Cup at the AirSpace Charleroi tunnel. It is rumored to be the largest competition of its kind in history.
Among the teams already qualified to fly are the USA’s first all-female indoor skydiving team competing internationally and the hotshot Singapore team, which has been on a tear recently and includes 19-year-old Kyra Poh, one of the most talented indoor and outdoor flyers in the world.
Sydney Kennett, the United States’ current Junior Freestyle Champion (in her fourth year holding the title) will return to the World Cup as well, where she most recently took home a bronze medal.
Published: February 9, 2022 | Last Updated: February 9, 2022
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