As promised, here is our write up of our weekend at Bodyflight Bedford World Challenge, 10th Anniversary.. Can you tell what's coming?..
Our third year competing at World Challenge began on Thursday night with a couple of quick practice rounds. Needless to say, they weren't the best we had flown, though wind issues were primarily to blame. Feeling undeterred we brushed it off and just hoped we wouldn't have the same problem in round one the following day.
The competition this year was in a slightly different format in that AAA (open and female) flew their first five rounds in the morning and then everyone else (AA, A, Rookie and freefly/artistic) started in the afternoon. This was to avoid long delays between rounds and to give teams more freedom with their time.
Feeling eager, we still headed to the tunnel pretty early on Friday morning. This year being the 10th anniversary, Paul Mayer, the tunnel owner had set up all kinds of fun goings on to keep everyone busy. We immediately headed for the mechanical bull and bungee run. Perhaps not the best idea before round one of a meet as we all picked up several bumps and bruises!
Unfortunately, despite the new layout of the event, our eagerness led us to waiting around for several hours still before our meet began, while we also got to watch those AAA teams that had just finished for the day start drinking their first beers! We couldn't decide if we preferred the new rounds timing or not. Firstly, we could have gotten more sleep and we always find that the early round six of the second day is normally the worst for us. So for that reason, we appreciated the late start. However, it did mean that we couldn't start the partying early like half the teams, but there was enough of us in the same boat for it to not matter, and the smaller gaps between rounds made the afternoon go a lot quicker!
The competition went off to a killer start, finishing round one in joint 1st place with Dubai Asaar Red and No Mercy from Poland. After the joint highest score in round two, we were leading over the Blue Rebels from Greece by only one point. Round 3, was an all random round, which we knew would be where points were lost/gained. Fortunately, we went in and went for it like mad which gave us the highest score of 28 points and widened the gap between us and second place. However, in rounds 4 and 5 we only got the second highest score which closed that gap and we finished the day with only 6 points between us and the Blue Rebels in second place. Too close for us to get excited just yet.
The competition this year was in a slightly different format in that AAA (open and female) flew their first five rounds in the morning and then everyone else (AA, A, Rookie and freefly/artistic) started in the afternoon. This was to avoid long delays between rounds and to give teams more freedom with their time.
Feeling eager, we still headed to the tunnel pretty early on Friday morning. This year being the 10th anniversary, Paul Mayer, the tunnel owner had set up all kinds of fun goings on to keep everyone busy. We immediately headed for the mechanical bull and bungee run. Perhaps not the best idea before round one of a meet as we all picked up several bumps and bruises!
Unfortunately, despite the new layout of the event, our eagerness led us to waiting around for several hours still before our meet began, while we also got to watch those AAA teams that had just finished for the day start drinking their first beers! We couldn't decide if we preferred the new rounds timing or not. Firstly, we could have gotten more sleep and we always find that the early round six of the second day is normally the worst for us. So for that reason, we appreciated the late start. However, it did mean that we couldn't start the partying early like half the teams, but there was enough of us in the same boat for it to not matter, and the smaller gaps between rounds made the afternoon go a lot quicker!
The competition went off to a killer start, finishing round one in joint 1st place with Dubai Asaar Red and No Mercy from Poland. After the joint highest score in round two, we were leading over the Blue Rebels from Greece by only one point. Round 3, was an all random round, which we knew would be where points were lost/gained. Fortunately, we went in and went for it like mad which gave us the highest score of 28 points and widened the gap between us and second place. However, in rounds 4 and 5 we only got the second highest score which closed that gap and we finished the day with only 6 points between us and the Blue Rebels in second place. Too close for us to get excited just yet.
On Saturday morning, we decided to make the most of the late start and chill out in the great Bodyflight facilities, such as the jacuzzi and sauna. Quickly followed by an interview with Kurt from NSL for World Challenge TV. He asked about the history of the team and we talked about how our third time at the meet was going. We'll share that video with you when it becomes available online.
The first round of the second day was round 6, made up of 3 randoms and a block, so another round we were fully aware that teams could make up points (or lose points). However, rounds 6, 7 and 8 we managed to score the highest (and joint) highest rounds. It was over these rounds that Dubai Asaar Red started to have their own competition with the Blue Rebels and the UAE team managed to overtake the Greeks and finished their meet in second place by 3 points.
Our round 10 was probably our 'bad' round of the meet. We always say that every team has at least one round that didn't quite go to plan and we were fortunate ours came at the end when we were leading by 12 points. We took it with a pinch of salt, and generally just went in and had a good time.
The first round of the second day was round 6, made up of 3 randoms and a block, so another round we were fully aware that teams could make up points (or lose points). However, rounds 6, 7 and 8 we managed to score the highest (and joint) highest rounds. It was over these rounds that Dubai Asaar Red started to have their own competition with the Blue Rebels and the UAE team managed to overtake the Greeks and finished their meet in second place by 3 points.
Our round 10 was probably our 'bad' round of the meet. We always say that every team has at least one round that didn't quite go to plan and we were fortunate ours came at the end when we were leading by 12 points. We took it with a pinch of salt, and generally just went in and had a good time.
We did not start celebrating until every AA team had been scored for round 10. At no point during the meet were we sitting comfortably or confidently. However, when the scores came in, so did the beers!
We were of course over the moon with how it had gone, but more so in disbelief. Blue Rebels and Dubai Asaar Red were both such tight teams, and executed their rounds so cleanly. We had pretty much settled with the fact that the international teams were going to be impossible to compete with, and that our main competition would be some of the UK teams.
After the medal ceremony we went upstairs and enjoyed the incredible fireworks display, put on as part of the 10 year celebrations. Then our celebrations began and went on well into the night.
We were of course over the moon with how it had gone, but more so in disbelief. Blue Rebels and Dubai Asaar Red were both such tight teams, and executed their rounds so cleanly. We had pretty much settled with the fact that the international teams were going to be impossible to compete with, and that our main competition would be some of the UK teams.
After the medal ceremony we went upstairs and enjoyed the incredible fireworks display, put on as part of the 10 year celebrations. Then our celebrations began and went on well into the night.
Congratulations to everyone that competed, especially the other medalists. A special congratulations to our fellow Chatteris team, the ChatterChaps who competed for the first time with coach Peter Knudsen in Rookie. They had a great first meet and took a special award home from the judges who felt they had showed a good performance throughout.
A massive thank you to Paul and his team at Bodyflight for not only such a successful weekend, but for seeing great potential in our team. And a big thank you to Steve H for getting us to where we are now.
A massive thank you to Paul and his team at Bodyflight for not only such a successful weekend, but for seeing great potential in our team. And a big thank you to Steve H for getting us to where we are now.