Style champions crowned as Shamal forces another day of standby at the 47th WMC Parachuting
DOHA (QAT) - The 47th WMC Parachuting continued to face challenging conditions on November 20 and 21 as the Shamal remained active over the Doha drop zone. Strong winds and blown sand once again prevented all flight operations across Accuracy Landing and Formation Skydiving. With safety and fairness impossible to guarantee, the organisers cancelled the day’s jumps and released all competitors. Despite these meteorological constraints, the Style events reached full completion in all categories, allowing the first combined overall champions to be officially confirmed.
The early rounds completed before the arrival of the Shamal proved decisive and the Style discipline also produced its final medal table today. In the women’s senior category, Leocadie Ollivier De Pury once again led the field after delivering clean, refined and stable sequences throughout all rounds. She was followed by China’s Yue Li whose controlled jumps placed her second, while Germany’s Natalie Henzler completed the podium with a strong bronze medal performance. Germany again stood out in the junior female Style event. Natalie Henzler took the gold medal with a total of 43.57 points. Zoe Stoll secured the silver medal with 44.05 and France’s Loïs Baal took the bronze with 47.96.
The men’s Style competition confirmed Germany’s dominance. Robin Griesheimer won the gold medal with a total score of 31.45 after combining precision and exceptional rotation speed. His teammate Elischa Weber followed very closely in second place with 31.49. Czechia’s Oldřich Šorf completed the podium with 31.93 after a series of technically impressive jumps. In the junior category, Germany’s Elias Kammer prevailed with a score of 34.71. Austria’s Michael Urban finished second with 34.90. Germany’s Magnus Ostler took the bronze medal with 22.95 after completing some of the fastest junior sequences of the week.
In the female overall category, France’s Leocadie Ollivier De Pury secured the top position thanks to highly consistent work in both Accuracy and Style. She finished with a total of three points, ahead of China’s Miao Ying who secured seven points and her teammate Gao Huili who followed with ten.
The junior female overall standings saw Germany’s Natalie Henzler confirm her extraordinary form. She won the category with a total of three points, combining a strong Style performance with excellent Accuracy. France’s Loïs Baal placed second with four points after confirming her breakthrough in both events, and Germany’s Zoe Stoll ranked third with five points.
Although Style reached full completion, the other disciplines remain open. The male Accuracy Landing competition is still awaiting its final rounds, and many of the leading athletes are only a few millimetres apart. Such narrow margins require completely stable weather conditions which the Shamal has made impossible over the past days. Formation Skydiving is also on standby. In the female 4-way category, Korea maintains a clear lead after six rounds with Morocco and Brazil following. In the male category, Belgium remains the provisional leader after three rounds with Germany and Türkiye currently standing in second and third positions. These standings remain unchanged from the previous bulletin due to the weather interruption.
A partial medal ceremony took place yesterday at ten o’clock local time to honour all champions already confirmed. This includes all Style medallists as well as the overall Style and Accuracy Landing female leaders who have secured their positions based on completed rounds.
Today will conclude the championship with the final jumps, followed by the medal ceremony and the official closing of the event.
Even in these challenging circumstances, the championship continues to highlight exceptional professionalism and sportsmanship. Athletes, judges and organisers maintain a high level of patience and discipline while awaiting a safe resumption of airborne activity. The situation in Doha confirms once again that meteorology is an integral part of military parachuting, and that adaptability remains one of the sport’s defining qualities.
Full results and live updates remain available at: https://results.worldskydiving.org/competitions/results/782
(Source: CISM Media & Communication Department - Pictures: Carsten Thiel)
