Sunday 27 August 2017

18.40  All calls are cancelled and jumping for the day will end as soon as the two teams in the air have landed.   Buses will leave the DZ at 19.30 to the Hotels.  The Team Leaders Meeting will be held tomorrow morning in front of the Manifest at 7.30 a.m. with buses leaving the hotels at 7.00 a.m.

17.45  All competitors who have made their 5th round accuracy jump are released for the rest of the day.  Every effort is being made to complete the 5th round today.

We do have one rejump (Russia) to complete round 4.  The results for all other competitors are published, without a comleted round.

17.30   The Jury has rejected the protest on the grounds that there was no evidence of a pad malfunction on that particular jump.  The Protest and the Jury response and report will be posted on this website

A few pictures from around the DZ

16.00  As we look at the position at the end of Round 3, 2 Czech Republic competitors tied in first place with 0.00 points and competitors from Belarus and Hungary both on 0.01 points, the Russians put in a protest of one of their jumper's score for the 3rd Round, and this is now on its way to the Jury President.

15.30

Great relief to the girls that remain on the Drop Zone here, when the manifester announced that Female Style was stood down for the day.  The  organisation's  hope for improvement in the visibility (due to smoke) had not happened. 

14.30

We are getting to the end of round 4 in the Male Accuracy event, but there is hope that we will complete 5 rounds today.  The heat is beginning to tell, it is very hot out by the target.  

12.30

Finally all the rejumps in Female Accuracy are completed and we have Deborah Ferrand, France in first place with 0.02 and Ewa Weselowska or Poland, and Nataliya Nikitsiuk, Belarus in joint second on 0.03, but the rest of the field is close behind.

There is much speculation,  curiosity and head scratching over the number of rejumps due to an electronic technical fault with the scoring system for the same two jumpers.  They even changed their shoes at the suggestion of the judges to no effect, but finally they scored for the rounds they needed to and the organisation was able to release all Females who were not competing in style.

Today 7.45 First Manifest announcement

The first load would consist of the rejumps from yesterday's Female Accuracy, 7 in all.  Three for round 4 (France, Montenegro and Poland) 1 rounds 2 and 4, Russia and 1 for rounds 2,3 Poland).  We would then move on to the first team for Male Accuracy Round 1. At 8.45 a.manifest call  lifted everyones hopes by putting Female Style on Standby.  On talking to the Chief Judge he says that they hope to be able to commence at mid-day;  at the moment the visibility is still too bad and the air smells of smoke - memories of Kolomna, Russia in 2010 are with some here.

Another long and hot day for Ulf Tingnert and his team of judges out at the pit with 38° C forecast.  Keep hydrated!

Yesterday evening the competition was officially opened - following an airshow when local jumpers put on a demonstration jump with smoke and the National Flag and FAI Flag flown into the arena.  There then followed a display of a variety of aircraft and a stunning display of flying skill.  The competitors, all smartly dressed in their team uniforms formed in a semicircle behind their national signs (in Montenegrin) in front of the stage.  We were then treated to a speech of welcome from the Mayor of Podgorica who said how proud they were to be hosting this European Championships and thanked the organisers for bringing this event to his town and country.  He said he would welcome the opportunity in the future to repeat this with the World Championships.  He was then followed by Dr. Rainer 'Exi' Hoenle, President of IPC (and here as an additional judge) who commented that he liked to go last in all these ceremonies, as he only has to echo the thanks of the previous speakers - and so simply declared the Competition's Start.