Hakimpet Air Force Station all set to host Parachuting

Hyderabad, Aug 31 (UNI) Air Force Station at Hakimpet at the outskirts of the city will be the venue for the Parachuting event in the World Military Games to be held here from October 14 to 21.

Parachuting Organising Committee Chairman Air Commander Naseem Akhtar told newspersons here that the competition involved two disciplines of parachuting -- Accuracy and Formation Skydive.

He said 330 athletes, including 50 women from 40 countries would take part in the event. China and Russia, considered as powerful teams, would also participate in the event.

For the first time an international level parachuting competition would be held in India.

Mr Akhtar said the accuracy competition involves jumping from a height of 3500 ft above ground level and the manoeuvering the parachute to hit a disc of 03 cm radius. The maximum distance measure was only 16 cm and the lowest scores of the best four competitors out of the five team members would be considered for calculating the result.

He said in formation skydive event, team of four best jumpers would jump from a height of 10,000 ft above the ground level and would perform pre-defined manoeuvres within the limited time frame of 30 seconds or less.

He said there would be ten rounds for the Accuracy team event while there would be eight rounds for individuals in the accuracy parachuting event.

Mr Akhtar added there would be eight rounds for Formation Skydive team event.

Each country was supposed to field one team (male and/or female) consisting of five competitors and one cameraman, including one qualified judge, which was mandatory.

He said the manoeuvres would be recorded by the team's cameraman who would also jump along with the team. The recording would then be seen and evaluated by the panel of judges on the ground. The team performing maximum correct manoeuvres would score maximum points.

He said the Air Force station here was all set to provide world class sports facilities adding strict security measures had been put in place for the visitors and also for the athletes.

UNI