Altenstadt parachutists can do more than just land on target
Created: 08/09/2022, 11:45 am
By: Paul Hopp
Centimeter work: The photo shows Robin Griesheimer landing in a target jump.
In ten laps he achieved the top result of “zero” twice.
© Torsten Kunke
The parachutists from Altenstadt can do much more than just land well.
They proved that at the World Championships in the classic disciplines.
Above all, the youth cleared up.
Strakonice – First the Military World Championships, then the start of the World Cup and now the World Championships of the Air Sports World Association FAI – for the parachutists of the Bundeswehr sports promotion group in Altenstadt, one top competition followed another.
The women and men were always in strong form.
As in Güssing and Bled, they also collected a bunch of medals in Strakonice, Czech Republic.
This time it was mainly the juniors who were successful: five gold and three silver medals and one bronze medal were recorded.
After all, the men won gold and silver twice each, showing "that they help determine the world level", as the national coach, Sergeant Torsten Kunke, stated with satisfaction.
Title fights with almost 180 athletes
For seven days, almost 180 men and women from 27 nations fought in Strakonice (German: Stracknitz) near the Bavarian Forest for the titles in the “classic disciplines” – style and target jumping.
Athletes from Russia, Belarus and China were not at the start.
It was the 37th world championships of the air sports association FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) and the eleventh title fights for juniors.
Challenging weather conditions in Strakonice
According to national coach Torsten Kunke, the general conditions were “excellent”.
The weather cooperated and the organization worked perfectly.
According to Kunke, the conditions around the drop area were "extremely demanding, as expected" due to the constantly changing winds.
The high temperatures caused thermals that “demanded everything” for the target jumpers, says Kunke.
Compared to other competitions, there were relatively high deviations from zero.
Zoe Stoll gets precious metal in the juniors
Corporal Zoé Stoll traveled home with three medals (2 x gold/1 x silver).
In style jumping, she was the only athlete to complete all five rounds.
In the end, Stoll even set a European record (55.51 seconds).
In the target jumping, Stoll won the silver medal with a personal best (41 centimeters deviation after eight rounds) behind the Austrian Sophie Grill (29).
In the combination rating (goal/style), both athletes shared first place.
For the combination, the numbers belonging to the placement of each athlete in both disciplines are added - the one with the lowest number of points wins.
The German team in Strakonice: (from left) Sergeant Elischa Weber, Sergeant Mathias Demmler, Sergeant Stefan Wiesner, Sergeant Robin Griesheimer, Corporal Zoé Stoll, Sergeant Nils Kammer, Sergeant Tatjana Gustke, Sergeant Kai Erthel, Gerda Klostermann-Mace, Sergeant Christoph Zahler and the national coach, Sergeant Torsten Kunke.
© Kunke
German juniors collect six podium places
The German duo collected six of the nine medals up for grabs.
Sergeant Nils Kammer won the target jumping (with a deviation of 19 centimetres), the style jumping (with a total of 23.34 seconds) and thus also the combined ranking.
Sergeant Mathias Demmler took second place in target jumping with a deviation of 22 centimeters, secured bronze in style jumping (25.19) and was second in the combined ranking (5 points).
Combination bronze went to Austrian Michael Urban (6).
Tatjana Gustke with the women in bad luck
In the target jumping, Oberfeldwebel Tatjana Gustke just missed out on the medals in fourth place, but remained promising in the race in the combined ranking.
Gustke, who was the best jumper at the World Cup in Slovenia, was unlucky in target jumping: In her seventh jump, she – while in the lead – received the maximum value of 16 centimeters and was therefore out of the fight for the medals.
With the same points as the second German, Gerda Klostermann-Mace, Gustke took 13th place among 48 participants.
Gustke finished sixth in the combined classification.
A total of twelve women started in both disciplines.
The best in the junior combination: (from left) Mathias Demmler (bronze), Nils Kammer (gold) and the Austrian Michael Urban (silver).
© Kunke
Men's team in second place in the combined classification
The discipline "style jumping" (also called figure jumping) gave the German men in Strakonice two medals.
Sergeant Elischa Weber (32.54) secured the world title after five laps, 0.19 seconds ahead of his teammate, Sergeant Robin Griesheimer.
Two other Germans made it into the final round of the top ten: Sergeant Stefan Wiesner (34.44) was sixth.
His distance to the bronze place was 73 hundredths.
Kai Erthel (36.67) was tenth among a total of 31 starters.
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In the target jumping, the team medals were awarded after eight rounds.
After a dramatic finish, the Germans went away empty-handed this time - fourth place was booked.
France, Germany and Italy (all 37) tied for bronze in a jump-off.
The French had the better end with a deviation of four centimeters compared to the Germans (6) and the Italians (8).
Gold went to the Czech Republic (33), silver to Switzerland (34).
The best in men's style jumping: (from left) Robin Griesheimer (silver), Elischa Weber (gold) and Frenchman Jean Vignuales (bronze).
© Kunke
In the individual classification, Sergeant Robin Griesheimer and Sergeant Kai Erthel made it into the semi-finals (top 30) and even into the final round (top ten).
With one athlete each from Hungary and the Czech Republic, they shared tenth place with a deviation of 13 centimetres.
For Griesheimer this meant that he won gold in the combined classification with seven points ahead of Czech Oldrich Sorf (8) and French Mathieu Guinde (9).
The latter had secured the title in a jump-off against Mohamed Al Atas (Qatar).
The German team was once again on the podium in the combined classification: Griesheimer, Erthel, Weber, Wiesner and Christoph Zahler took silver behind the Czech Republic and ahead of France.