Boel's
3D Bits
By Boel Janérus (Freefly
Competitor, Sweden)
Thursday and Friday, June 28-29
A lot of pulse
There have been a lot of tense nerves here at the World meet in
Granada. All the 3D top teams have been doing their last jumps and
in many of the events there were some really tight final rounds.
Just a short moment ago the judges were starting to judge the last
round of freefly and then the power went off. I can tell you there
has been some freeflyers here with a lot of pulse.
Stefania won with 0.1
Among the female freestylers the excitement is over by now.
Emanuelle Celicout was only 0.2 points ahead of Stefania
Martinengo before the last round. Then Stefania got a 9.3 score
while Emanuelle stopped at 9.0. That means that Italy won over
France with only 0.1 points. That is close, to say the least.
It was Stefania's free routines that got her the gold medal,
while Emanuelle Celicout had stronger compulsory jumps.
The compulsory got Fradet the gold
The male skysurf event is just completed, too. Eric Fradet took
the lead in the men's skysurf after being even with Valeri Rozov
for a while and it's just amazing how similar their scores have
been. They both got exactly the same scores for the third, fourth,
sixth and seventh rounds. But it was the fifth, compulsory round,
that decided who would win this time. Fradet got 7.3 points while
Rozov had to settle with 6.4.
So what will happen with the skysurf event now that it's not
included in the X-games anymore? Noboby knows, but many of the
more knowledgeable people I have talked to are worried that
skysurfing is about to diminish and disappear. Many of the best
skysurfers we have seen during the last couple of years aren't
even here.
The female skysurfers aren't done yet, but there is no question
about who will win. Tanya Garcia-O'Brien has a total of 51.0 right
now and Judith Graile is way behind with a total of 36.2.
Freestyle Danes still rocking
In the male freestyle event the Danes will most probably win. Olav
Zipser is right behind them and we are waiting for the results of
the seventh round, but Nils Predstrup and camera flyer Martin
Kristensen have showed such strong routines with smooth and
consistent interaction and technically demanding moves that I am
pretty sure that they already have the gold in their hand. There
are 2.2 points separating them for the moment and it would take a
lot to change that now.
Tense waiting for freefly results
All the freefly teams have finished the last round and we just
received the scores. As expected, Olav's Freefly Circus became
winners. They got 61.5 total points while Arizona Freefly got the
silver with 60.7 and Babylon fell back to a third place with 59.6
points.
The Circus's last two rounds, both the same free routine, were
amazingly tight and visually pleasing to watch. After flipping out
the door they do a clean synchronized belly track, and then turn a
clown compressed around in a 720 degree cartwheel. I have already
told you about how they do a 360 degree turn with a stable feet to
feet dock and about Mike cartwheeling over Rook's shoulders. At
the end of this routine they build a belly cat, turn it down into
a double head down, then pass the camera tracking in line while
Rook holds up his arm in a victory sign. They are well worth a
gold medal after this, I must say.
Silver medallists Arizona Freefly's routines have been very
tight and stable. They use many of the compulsory moves in their
free jumps and they started their seventh jump with a double head
down carve where Omar Alhegelan and Steve Curtis actually let
their heads meet during the move. Very nice indeed.
As I wrote earlier, the French Babylon team definitely have
brought some new ideas into this event. Their performance was
excellent during the first jumps, but in the fourth round they
lost some of the strength and focus and the judges were
surprisingly hard on them giving them a very low score compared to
their, after all, very skillful performance. Anyway I think they
are the most talked about team after this competition.
I have heard some people drop skeptical comments about their
ballet-like, stretched-out and muscular flying style, some saying
that it's more freestyle than freeflying. But personally I think
their border-crossing style feels new and innovative.
So now the freefly event is part of the World meet family and
Freefly Circus just made history winning the first gold medal. Way
to go!
1700 Update
Well, now we know for sure that the Danish team Funkflyz won
the freestyle competition. And not only did they win, they also
got the highest score for one single jump (9.5 for their sixth
round) that any team received at this World meet. Congratulations,
Martin and Nils!
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