Day One at the 2nd FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships in Montreal, Canada got off to a flying start on Friday, as more than 200 competitors from 23 nations took to the wind tunnel at SkyVenture, Laval.

In the hotly contested 4-Way Formation Skydiving (FS), five rounds out of a total of 10 were completed. Belgium muscled their way firmly to the top of the leaderboard, scoring 161 points overall. Round five saw them score a blazing 47 points – six more than nearest rival France.

France itself was in close second after the five rounds with 156 points, and the USA in third with 151. The results are close, and mean the tension will continue to rise as the competition enters its second stage.

In the Women’s 4-Way FS, France dominated, pushing the United Kingdom firmly down into second place, with 104 points against 85 after four rounds. Sweden was in hot pursuit in third, just one point behind the Brits.

France also led the Juniors table – after four rounds they were sitting at 118 points, 8 points ahead of home nation Canada.

The Juniors provided one of the highlights – and drew one of the biggest crowds – with the first two rounds of the Freestyle competition. Singapore’s Syrah Poh ended the day just 0.2 points ahead of USA’s Kaleigh Wittenberg. Both girls are barely teenagers. Sitting in third place was Poland’s Andrzej Soltyk. 

In the Open Freestyle, Russia’s Leonid Volkov was leading after two rounds out of seven. One of the biggest showmen in the competition, he wowed the crowd with a typically dynamic performance, bouncing off the walls before he even got into the tunnel.

In the Dynamic 2-Way qualification, after two rounds of three Poland was on top having won both rounds. Behind them by a whisker was France, with Switzerland in third.

In the Dynamic 4-Way qualification, the Czech Republic team showed its skill by also winning the two rounds, putting it at the top of the leaderboard ahead of Switzerland and France.

The competition is well on track, with another full day on Saturday. Tune in to the Livestreaming via the competition website at www.wisc2017.com.

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