0810

The weather is not bad today: high thin clouds, a little cool, still a fine day for finals!

Please be kind to your refresh keys. I'll try to give plenty of advance warning on the time frame of posted scores. Teams are not even here yet ...

Following up on the decision yesterday to include Italy in the FS 4-Way (Open) finals: while I'm personally glad to see them in there, as a judge and competition observer I strongly disagree with this decision. It's changing the rules in the middle of the contest, and here's why: As I've discussed previously, the FS rules describe tie-breaking rules for standings, but do not differentiate between "preliminary" standings (e.g. "Standings at Round ...") and "Final" standings; it only knows about the latter. In that context, Norway is in third place all by themselves after 9 rounds based on the highest score of any round (their 36 in round 6). If Italy should happen to finish today in third place, and I were on the Norwegian or UK delegations, I would be quite upset about it. Just my two cents worth, and worth what you paid for it ...

0920

No teams in the area yet, still trying to nail down the schedule of who's going up when.

Lucy reports that the precise schedule is a closely guarded meet director-level secret, and we'll know the calls when we hear them!

I went out and chatted with some of the UK delegation (any excuse to visit with the V-Max ladies, ya know;) about the FS 4-Way decision to include Italy. It turns out that written permission was sought and obtained from both the UK and Norwegian delegations prior to the decision. Terrific sportsmanship by both those delegations, of course. However, the precedent of allowing arbitrary rules changes just because no one dissents still makes me nervous. Hopefully the FS Subcommittee will modify the rules to allow six teams into the final round, as it is in CF.

1000+

CF Sequential teams are landing. Italy 8-Way FS just got a 15-minute call.

Now judging the CF Sequential Finals. Italy: 4. (10:15am, USA 8-Way just went on a 15-minute call.) Netherlands: 6 (late breaking news: they are going to rejump round 7). T2: The judges here send you piles of well wishes for you, R3, your whole family, and see you in Croatia next year (T1 was heard to say "I'm not doing this again without T2"). Lucy fumbles the digital camera and the compact flash card with four 8-way FS team photos lands in a cup of yogurt. Card is fine, Lucy is cursing in French. Belgium: 4.

(Continuing CF Sequential Finals, 10:35am) USA: 10 (good jump!!!). Russia gets an 8 on the first view, if that stays there's a points tie with the USA for 2d place, and the tie-breaker will be based on the fastest last point in time (on which round, I want to know?!). (10:45am, France 8-Way FS just jumped and USA Freefly got a 15-minute call.) Russia: 8. Remember the CF standings situation I was talking about way back when? Ladies & gentlemen, we have it here! France: 12.

If the fastest-to-last-point tie-breaker rule will apply to the jumps where USA and Russia each got 10 points, then the USA will win the silver. That's still to be confirmed however! (I was trying to get an answer to that question from Barry before the competition started, but he said we'd cross that bridge if & when we got to it.)

1054.03

USA FS 8-Way just opened their parachutes and upon landing Tim Tennant reports that they are looking "Damned happy". They're creeping "round 11" Just In Case.

Netherlands CF Sequential gets a 1 in the round 7 rejump.

1110

All 8-Way teams are on the ground and the ladies FS 4-Way are on call.

And FS 8-Way Finals judging begins! France and USA get 16. Here's Russia: a ... 15 on the first view!!! Let's see what the judges do on the review ... a 15 stands, we have a jump-off for 8-Way!

Important note: if the two teams get the same score in the jump-off round, Russia wins based on the first tie-breaker rule, with the highest score in any round of 26. So, the USA must continue their momentum and spank that jump-off round!

1150

8-Way FS teams are crept and on call for their Jump-off. CF Sequential results are official: USA gets the silver. Ladies FS begins judging shortly.

Question: when was the last time a WPC had a jump-off round to determine the champion? If you have the answer please e-mail it to me.

1200

Female FS Finals just posted: Italy, 15; USA, 16; Norway, 18; UK coming up ... a 15! Congrats to the UK FS ladies on their first World Championship!!!

CF Sequential results are final: USA wins the silver medal based on the fastest tenth point, edging Russia by just a couple of seconds.

CF Rotation results are final: Russia wins, followed by USA and Sweden. A great performance here by the USA crew teams, congrats guys!!!

1205

Freefly finals are being judged. And FS 4-Way finals begin: UK, 20; Norway ... a 21 on the first view; that should stand, it looked real clean to me ... USA a 20, and France a 23, what a jump!!! Congratulations, France, on a spectacular World Champion performance! (Haven't seen Italy yet...)

1220

USA 8-Way FS just landed and Tim reports in on the radio that they looked "ecstatic"! Judging soon!

Netpost is having FTP problems now, will get the scores to you by smoke signals if necessary.

FS 8-Way Jump-Off: both teams get 19. RUSSIA WINS based on the highest score in round 6. Interestingly, I got the scores off the data network; the DZTV crew here did not switch them out to the public because Freefly finals were being judged. They recorded the FS judging to play back later; will report more when I see them ...

Freefly: final jumps coming up ... USA WINS!!! Way to go, Rook and Mike and Jon!!!

	Above left: Russian FS 8-Way members watch the US being judged. Above: Russians and Americans enjoying the competition. Left: Nina and Olga watch the Jump-off judging.

1335

The dust is settling.

After all that ... Italy FS 4-Way did not do round 10!

I had to do some tweaking to handle the jumpoff round in the FS results. And the CF Sequential final results (the one for the judges) needed help: I did not previously have a way of noting "penalty" scores in CF (a zero in Sequential or Rotation, or a 120 in Speed, that is applied manually). Such scores are not eligible to be the "joker" round...

The Russian and US 8-Way teams celebrate together after round 10.
Photo by Brent Carlton.

Ted Wagner, Chief Engineer | Tim Wagner, Webmaster