We're less than one week out from the beginning of the Dubai International Parachuting Championships (DIPC) and Gulf Cup.
For those who have attended or watched this event in past years, you know it’s a long event, with nonstop activity. Depending on the discipline, some competitors will only do one or two competition jumps per day. This makes the mental challenges of this event much different than a meet that is completed in a day or two. Lets have a look at some of the events and the teams/countries in attendance….
4-Way (Open & Female)
38 teams from 23 countries. In the open class, the French, Belgians, Russians and USA will all be presenting teams that will be pushing for top spots on the podium. Qatar and UAE were both present as guest teams last month at the US Nationals and put up some impressive scores. Both countries have up’d their averages since last years Gulf Cup and will be competing for the top spot this year as well.
Classic Accuracy (Team, Male, Female)
45 teams +23 individuals from 31 countries. In the Female category the Russians are expected to bring a strong team again and will surely be the team to beat. In the mens field it will surely be a fight to the finish. Italy, Czech, France, Slovenia, Russia have all been known to bring strong contenders to such an event.
Canopy Formation (4-Way & 2-Way)
13 teams from 9 countries. This will be the first year that CF will be included at the DIPC. The French & Aussie teams have been looking very strong recently with their Storms. But the Russian teams are known to be strong in the CF events and are planned to have a full line-up in Dubai.
Canopy Piloting
120 competitors from 28 countries. The who’s who of the swooping community is planned to be out in full force. There was some talk about some changes to the events this year but after further review the DIPC has decided to keep the traditional speed, distance, zone accuracy, and freestyle events.
We'll be keep you updated daily via our Facebook with tib bits and more, and daily scores and video updates on The PD Blog
