posted Nov 24th, 2008 - The NSL News story on 14 November 2008 covered the discussion of the event duration at the World Meet 2008. The article inspired a few active competitors tp provide feedback directly to Fiona McEachern, Australian Chair of IPC's Formation Skydiving Committee.

Two of the world's top 4-way competitors commented the NSL News story and sent their valuable input to Australia and the IPC (International Parachuting Commission). Steve Hamilton is a former member of the British national team XL and a 4-way veteran. He placed 3rd with an XL re-union lineup at the World Challenge 2007 (26.1 average) and took the 2nd place with a different XL lineup at the World Challenge 2008 (28.1 average).

Steve Hamilton joined the Italian Sinapsi lineup in 2008 and won the Italian Nationals 2008 with a 19.5 average. He plans to compete for Sinapsi and Italy at the World Meet in 2010. He has competed at world meets since 2001 and provided his personal experiences with the event duration shortly after the NSL News story was posted.

Event Duration - Steve Hamilton

I am prompted to write to you after reading Kurt Gaebel's Skyleague article regarding the duration of World Championship events.

I was a member of the UK national 4-way team XL from 2000-2004 and have come out of semi-retirement this year as a member of the Italian national team Sinapsi. During the hiatus in my competitive career I have attended the World Championships 2004 (Croatia), 2006 (Germany) and recently 2008 (France) in my capacity as coach for the delegations of UK, South Africa, Norway, Finland and Lithuania.

As we are all aware, it was not possible to complete these shorter-duration events due to weather conditions. As both a competitor and coach I find this situation frustrating and anti-climactic and wondered what considerations will be made regarding future events.

It is my opinion that returning to a 7-day event, perhaps with the option of an early finish if weather permits, would be an easy fix to the problem. I have heard the argument that it is difficult for teams without the benefit of funding or 'professional' status to be able to commit to longer events, but my own discussions and experience do not show this to be the case. Probably without exception every team has committed to a degree of training for these meets, involving time, travel and money. It is my belief that most would prefer to see their efforts rewarded with a completed competition, with an additional 48 hours of attendance being a small price to pay for what, to many competitors, has been a full-time involvement for maybe 4 years.

The other issue that was raised was one of geographical location for these events. I understand that one of the main considerations here was the absence of bids from potential hosts, thus limiting the choices available for the venue. Are there, perhaps, steps we can take to make hosting the World Meet a more attractive proposition for potential hosts, sponsors and investors? Either way, I think history is showing us that 5 days in Northern Europe is not sufficient to allow an adequate representation for our sport. I look forward to any comments/feedback and indeed would be only too willing to consider any way in which you feel I could be of assistance in this matter.

More feedback was provided by a Belgian 4-way veteran. Sven Ibens was the first Center Inside for Spa Hayabusa when the team was formed in 2003. He competed with the Belgian national team for four years and left the team after the World Meet 2006 in Germany. He organized the European Skydiving League in 2007 and is now Belgium's official IPC Delegate and a full member of IPC's Formation Skydiving Committee. He commented the difficulties of balancing the athletic part of the competition with the ceremonies.

Event Duration - Sven Ibens

I agree that we should increase the possibility of doing 10 rounds at a World meet and we can do so by going back to a 7-day event. However, including the possibility to end the event sooner, if weather permits, may be hard to accomplish from an organisational point of view. Most organisers arrange some special attractions during the award ceremony and have special VIP guest attending this. It will be very hard for them to have two possible dates for the award ceremonies. But, again, I agree with the idea of going back to a 7-day event.

Fiona McEachern encourages Formation Skydiving competitors to provide more feedback. She said that the agenda for the next IPC meeting comes out mid December. She tries to collect as much information as possible since the IPC Delegates will probably decide upon the event duration early next year. Topics have to be addressed on the official agenda before they will be discussed and decided upon at the next IPC meeting. Feedback can be sent directly to IPC Committee.