A Successful Meet!
9 December 2009
by Eugene "Pottie" Potgieter, JSC Chairman

And there goes the curtain! What a meet we had! My huge personal thanks to everyone who was involved in making this a meet of international standard. The World Cup Committee who selflessly slaved themselves in our quest and quite often at the expense of their families and businesses, thank you. I sometimes wondered if we really deserve you. You all did so much!!!

A huge thanks to all our sponsors and especially our Mayor of Merafong City, Mr Papi Molekwane, who saw the potential of this event and gave us tremendous support in hosting it. We have established and are donating some of our funds generated to an Aids Orphans support fund founded in honour of our Mayor. We will soon display more specifics to all those keen to contribute donations towards it.

Special thanks must also go to Pete Lawson, Mike Teague and the PSC team for all their assistance, and Julie Teague for her brilliant commentary! Thanks guys, we couldn't have done this without you.

Congratulations to our raffle winners! The lucky winner of the Krugerrand is D Peardikis from Parktown; In second place with a Tandem jump or AFF course is T Modisakeng from Johannesburg; and in third place with a Static Line course is ASE Neethling from Fochville. Thanks to everyone who bought a raffle ticket, your support made all the difference.

This event was the actual climax following at least three years of work. When we first started building this pond three years ago, we never could imagine, not even in our wildest dreams, that we would one day be honored by so many experienced skydivers flocking to it for a prestigious World Class event such as this one.

Unfortunately, as life normally does, it threw us some bitter together with the sweet. It was with deep sorrow that we experienced the tragic incidents during this event and our hearts go out to all those affected by it. Believe me when I say that it jerked us all to a standstill to review our approach and attitude not only to our sport, but also to life in general.

On behalf of South Africa, Merafong City Carletonville and Johannesburg Skydiving Club, I wish to thank each and every one of the competitors who graced our skies. Not only was it a huge honour and privilege to have you visiting JSC, but also an unforgettable experience to see you in action. The higher altitude lends itself to the shattering of records, but with that comes the higher risk running parallel with it.

We certainly hope this honour befalls us again and we are already planning a money meet, hence the name “Swoop For Gold”. So watch this space, big things are bound to happen!

Competition Update
6 December 2009, 10h34
by Julie Teague

There was a valiant attempt by the event organizers to finish the competition late yesterday afternoon. But in the face of a massive thunder storm, the last of the second round of accuracy and the third round was jumped this morning. The windy conditions were consistent with yesterday afternoon, and so the playing field was level.

Just when we thought we’d seen the meet's biggest upset, along came the last round of accuracy. Nick Batsch had a challenging set up and ended up in the water, which kicked him off the overall podium. It also sees Christian Wagner (Austria) with his first World Cup gold medal in the accuracy event, with Jay and Tobias Scherrinsky of Germany in joint second place. Nick will be more than happy with his Gold in speed and Bronze (and World Record) in distance. In speed, Greg Windmiller is in second, with Shannon Pilcher in third. Jay also picked up his only round Gold in Distance, followed by Marat Leiras representing Brazil.

It says a lot about the Canadian 2008 Champion, Jay Moledzki, to know that even with a zero round in speed, he still walks away with the coveted event Gold. Silver and Bronze go to Christian Wagner and Pablo Hernandez of Spain respectively.

The tragedies which the American, Lithuanian and Russian teams have endured have been a stark reminder of the potential dangers in this cutting edge sport. It’s been a long week for all. An event which could take a day and a half in good conditions was spread over 5 days. The local spectators were the real winners, as the weekend jumps attracted their attention. Everyone is looking forward to the closing ceremony this evening, and as I write jumpers are meeting with the FAI officials and judges, to discuss improved safety and scoring measures.

South Africa has once again hosted a World Class event, and thanks must be paid to the tireless effort which the Johannesburg Skydiving Club have made.

Competition Update
5 December 2009, 12h26
by Julie Teague

Could today get any more exciting? We have three major happenings to report which have kept us on the edge of our seats. Nick Batsch has stolen the recently established world record in distance, by swooping a massive 181m early in the day. Another new record from the Americans came moments later when Gregg Windmiller managed a 2.093 seconds, beating Jay Moledzki's record of September this year by 0.74 seconds. And lastly – if you can believe it – Jay has verted on a speed round! So clearly a day he’s not going to remember fondly. But, as I said yesterday, ANYTHING could happen still.

Local supporters were disappointed today, when Rob Kruger, who had been sitting in 5th place overall slipped drastically in rankings after scoring a zero through an entry gate vert in the second speed round. All of the speed and distance rounds have been completed, but the last two rounds of accuracy are still to be jumped. We are at high altitude and we have funky winds, so we are probably going to wait for the last competition rounds until this afternoon. Right now I’m about to go and get myself some lunch, but I can’t wait to see what this afternoon will bring.

Competition Update
4 December 2009, 09h45
by Julie Teague

Yesterday evening, we completed two rounds of speed. With a funky, bumpy tail wind in assistance, the day finished with 4 re-jumps due to a malfunction and various technical equipment failures. Jay Moledzki is currently sitting in 1st place, having beaten everyone by a large margin on the first round, and narrowly losing to Nick Batch on the second.

With the first load today taking off at just before 6am, we’ve kicked off with 2 rounds of distance. The mirror like pond and windless conditions kept the first round relatively uneventful. That said, the entry gate buzzer wasn’t working properly, so there are tons of jumps currently under review on video footage for vertical extensions. So whilst I can’t yet comment on the outcome of the first round, we have the awesome news to report that Jay has once again pulled a new record out the hat, wiping out Nick's 169m record held since last year's World Champs – Jay’s impressive 175.92m was run with a 4.2 metre per second wind behind him. His PD Factory Team Mate Shannon Pilcher has not been as fortunate, surprising everyone with verts on both distance rounds so far. We’re on a wind hold for now, but this competition is definitely hotting up. Reading this back to myself my report sounds a little like an ‘Ode to Jay’ – but the meet is still up for grabs and could go any way, with less than 50% of the jumps completed.

Watch this space.

Competition Update
3 December 2009, 13h45
by Julie Teague

Already a day and half into the competition, only half a speed round has been completed so far. The North Easterly wind which has prevailed throughout the training week has hindered competition progress and performance. Seemingly unaffected by the conditions are the Americans who have competed so far, with Nick, Hans and Dan in the top three spots so far. The time to beat is 2.398 seconds. If the wind persists, this could spell record breaking stuff as the speed course is set up 100% down wind.

Marat Leiras was unfortunate yesterday morning, posting a 0 score as the only competitor to jump and stay in the competition in the Accuracy load which went up. The meet has unfortunately been marred by some serious incidents, which stopped jumping today before the wind started up again. Jumpers are on a 15 minute standby and are waiting on the drop zone.