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Inside Look at the 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championship
From April 18-23 the best indoor skydiving athletes from around the world all came together to battle it out for gold.
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The 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championship has just come to a close, and what an exciting event it was! More than sixty teams came together at the Hurricane Factory Tatralandia wind tunnel in Slovakia to show off their incredible indoor skydiving skills, vying for the highest honors of this prestigious competition. From stunning freestyle performances to the perfect execution of team formation choreographies, this championship provided spectators with an up-close look at some of the world’s best indoor skydivers.
4-Way Formation Skydiving (FS)
The competition was fierce this year in the Open category for 4-Way FS, with the USA and France off to a heated start, scoring equal in the first round. The French team battled it out over 3 days of competition but the USA’s Arizona Airspeed team (Skydive Arizona/SkyVenture) ultimately took the win after an incredible performance, taking the top score in 8 out of 10 rounds.
“The competition between us, France, and Belgium is beginning to heat up as the pace of all three teams increases. Our team has many more competitions ahead of us, but today we put a big win behind us” stated the USA team.
This is the second year in a row that the USA, France, and Belgium take podium places, but it’s worth noting that the results have never been so close, with Belgium missing out on 2nd place by just 4 points behind France.
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On the other end of the spectrum, the podium for the Female category for 4-Way FS couldn’t have been more unpredictable, with last year’s winners, the Czech Republic, sliding back early on in the competition and ultimately taking fourth place. And to really spice things up, Female teams GB and USA arrived with a bang in their debut World Championship performance, battling it out to the end alongside France, taking 3rd, 2nd, and 1st respectively.
4-Way Vertical Formation Skydiving (VFS)
Last year’s top 3 VFS teams, USA, Italy, and Poland were back and ready to battle it out again this year in a grueling 10 rounds of competition. The USA’s Skydive Chicago (Skydive Chicago) team were off to a slow start, placing 3rd in the first round, but a consistent performance over three days allowed them to slowly take the edge, placing first with Italy’s Vertical Storm team placing a close second.
Despite taking the best scores in 3 rounds, Poland ended up placing 3rd with only 10 points between them and 1st position. A tight competition to say the least!
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Dynamic Flying – D2W, D4W, Junior D2w
USA teams had an outstanding performance this year in the dynamic flying categories, taking 1st in D2W and D4w and 2nd in the Juniors.
Last year’s winners, USA’s brother and sister Noah and Kaleigh Wittenburg, took first place just ahead of their 4-way team members, Cory Schimpf and Jill Knutson in the D2W event, while the four of them scored 1st together in the D4W event.
“I am so proud of the results for the competition, we took first place in both 2 Way Dynamic and 4 Way Dynamic! So much time, effort, and a few nosebleeds went into achieving this and it truly payed off” said Kaleigh Wittenburg on Instagram.
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In the Junior D2W category, Singapore was a clear winner throughout the competition scoring a jaw-dropping 71 points ahead of the USA team who took 2nd. It’s not the first time we’ve seen great things from Singapore athletes so as these juniors move into adult categories, the USA teams may have some tough competition on their plates. Look out USA!
Solo Freestyle
Yet again we saw incredible prowess from the freestyle athletes this year, with the usual culprits battling it out for podium positions. With just 2.8 points between 1st and 3rd position the competition couldn’t have been closer, but ultimately, Kyra Poh (Singapore) took the top position, with Maja Kuczynska (Poland) and Toms Ivans (Latvia) taking 2nd and 3rd respectively for the second year running.
With such incredible performances from the top three, it’s become increasingly challenging for other athletes to have a chance of taking home a medal. Someone with a chance of breaking up the pack is the USA’s James Rogers, who just missed out on a podium position this year but has had a great performance at recent competitions and proved himself to be a threat after rising from the ranks of last year’s 8th position.
Shortly after the event Kyra Poh, who’s win made her the first ever to officially win all Freestyle World Cup and World Championship titles in the sport of Indoor Skydiving also announced that she will be taking a break from freestyle competitions for the next year to focus on her dynamic skydiving with her sister, Vera Poh.
“These 8 years have been filled with so much learning while growing up competing in this category from a small 14-year-old girl till now, and I am really grateful to everyone that has helped and supported me every step of the way” stated Kyra on her Instagram account.
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The Junior Freestyle event finally gained some traction this year 10 competitors from around the world (in comparison to last year’s 3). Hungary’s Máté Feith took 1st position just ahead of Singapore champ, Kai Minejima Lee.
It’s great to see the incredible level of athleticism that the juniors have displayed this year. It only makes you wonder what’s to come for the future of the sport.
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For official results for the 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships, visit the FAI World Skydiving website here.
Published: April 26, 2023 | Last Updated: April 26, 2023
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