JEDDAH, 11 April 2008 — After the practice rounds that concluded Wednesday night the battle for aerial supremacy in 6th Jeddah International Championship for Skydiving starts today at the Jeddah Corniche next to Rosewood Hotel.
The week-long competition attracted entries from 10 countries including host Saudi Arabia. Open free to the public, the opening day schedule features accuracy landing and formation skydiving from 7 to 12:30 a.m. and from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The championship has been moved from Durrat Al-Arrus to the corniche to allow easy access to the venue, according to Maj. Mubarak Al-Suwailem, deputy president of the Arab Federation for Aerial Sports and director of the event.
The preparations drew praise from Mohammed Abdulrahman, head of UAE skydiving committee and International Skydiving Referee . He cited the type of aircrafts used this year and said the organization is getting better each year. He also said the weather is great and “we hope it lasts so that we will be able to run the planned 8 rounds for the accuracy landing and another 8 rounds for the formation skydiving in addition to the semifinal and final rounds.”
The competitors have been doing practice rounds these past two days, but the official championship will start on Friday, he said.
Abdulrahman singled out the Bahrain team as among the tournament favorites. “We have seen them progressing since last year and it is a good sign they’re moving forward. We are always glad that Arab countries are participating such as Yemen.”
“Those who work hard and deserve it will earn it and we wish all the teams the best of luck,” Abdulrahman said when asked about his team’s chances in the event.
Ibrahim Al-Sayyad, event assistant director, said they tried their best to create a suitable atmosphere for the delegations and the viewing public. Their goal is, he added, for all to enjoy the event and have a memorable experience in Jeddah and hence they chose a location that is close to the city center, better aircrafts, and better seats and tents in addition to providing the delegations with shuttles to tour the city and visit Makkah and Madinah. He also said the governmental sector has been very supportive in lending them the aircrafts.
Of the Saudi team Al-Sayyad said, “they have what it takes to improve, they only need to have free time to train and become better. Unfortunately, some of them jumped only four times since last year’s championship, while the rest of the teams had been jumping four times per day during training camps for months. They at least need 500 jumps before participating.”
Saudi skydiving leader Sami Al-Hammadi said they are ready to face the challenge even without the benefit of a proper training.
“The timing was bad this year. We could not train due to our obligation at work in the military but getting used to work under pressure will help them in the competition hopefully, “ he said.
“Last year we placed third in the formation skydiving and we believe we would do better this year,” he added.
Bahrain team, for example, he said, already have a second team to back the first team in case of injury and they did training camps in UAE and abroad.
Yemeni skydiving team leader Mohammed Al-Mushki said they are optimistic about their participation in the accuracy landing and have been training for two months.
Mohammed Melelle, director for the Bahrain Skydiving, said they trained for two weeks in UAE before the event. “We brought around 15 skydivers from both the A team to compete and the B team to gain knowledge and experience,” he said.
