posted Dec 2nd, 2013 - No Formation Skydiving events were scheduled for Monday morning at the 4th Dubai International Parachuting Championship 2013. The 8way teams will come back in the afternoon and add another round or two, as they are one round behind the 4way teams at the moment.

December 2nd is actually the independance day for the United Arab Emirates, and the emiratees celebrate for two days or even more. The day marks the separation from the British Protectorate Treaties and the unification of the seven emirates in 1971, including Dubai. However, the 4th DIPC 2013 is a part of the celebrations, and the event continues with all activities.

New meet videos are showing the Russian national 4way team Barkli in action. The Sun Path Products NSL News explained yesterday how little training the Russian team had before coming to Dubai. The videos are all the more impressive under the circumstances.

4way Open

4way Women

4way VFS

8way Open

4th DIPC 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open Class	11,H,12	F,15,10	A,N,E,Q,8	K,4,L,6	M,C,20,5	13,O,16	3,17,18	21,7,1	G,22,14	P,19,9	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	23	24	32	27	29	-	-	-	-	-	135	27.0
2	Barkli (RU)	20	23	31	24	23	-	-	-	-	-	121	24.2
3	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	19	19	26	22	25	-	-	-	-	-	111	22.2

Bad luck came on top of the very limited 4way training. Barkli was on the way to one of the best meet performances in team history through the first four rounds before Round 5 interrupted the world class streak.

The Russian team thought that yesterday's 4way action was over with the completion of Round 4. Barkli went for lunch after consulting with the manifest and was then surprised with a 15-minute call to the jump plane. The team members said that they were not prepared well enough at all when rushing to the boarding area.

It was a bad coincidence that the sequence of Round 5 would also require additional physical and mental preparation due to the slot switcher or mirror-image situation that Block 5 (Opal - Opal) brings to each team. The lack of enough time for preparation left its marks, as Barkli experienced the first more significant flaws of the whole meet, as the video shows.

The 23-pointer for Round 5 turned out to be significantly below Barkli standards, and it was the first time in Dubai that any other teams were able to outscore the Russians (Aerodyne French Girls, SDC Rhythm XP). The Barkli members were disappointed, and two members (Oleg Shalamykhin, Vladimir Pavlenko) were reminded of a similar situation that they had experienced long ago.

Russia's 8way team had missed a call to the jump plane at the World Meet 2001 in Spain, due to a misunderstanding of the schedule, lack of communication and missing interpretation. Russia was in contention for the gold medals, and a zero for the round would have been devastating.

Arizona Airspeed lobbied successfully on Russia's behalf for a chance to jump the round, and Russia eventually won the gold medals for the first time in history. It is very unlikely that Oleg Shalamykhin and Vladimir Pavlenko will be able to change the outcome of Round 5. Time to move on after bad luck...