César Rico is the Fastest Flyer in the World!
The Spanish athlete, César Rico, is from this Saturday the fastest flyer in the world after winning Solo Speed, the speed discipline final, which was disputed this weekend at The Wind Games international indoor skydiving competition in the Empuriabrava Wind Tunnel (Girona, Catalonia). The best 200 flyers in the world participated in the fifth edition of the competition, which closes with a very positive turnover for the Spanish teams with a total of 6 medals.
The Road to The Olympic Games
The aim to achieve that indoor skydiving is recognised as an Olympic sport has set the tone of this fifth edition of The Wind Games, after discovering that the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) is studying the possibility of presenting indoor skydiving as new Olympic discipline for the Paris Games in 2024. The world elite faced a three-day competition with 8 categories, among which Junior Freestyle stood out as the novelty category in which children aged between 8 and 14 competed. It was precisely in this innovative category that the young 12-year-old Australian, Amy Watson, won the first Gold Medal in history.
The Windoor director, Aida Rico, highlights “after many years of hard work, we are about to achieve our longed Olympic candidature for Paris 2024, an achievement that fills us with pride as well as the whole international indoor skydiving community”.
Moreover, the Spaniard flyer form Benidorm, César Rico managed to improve the mark of the last edition in the Solo Speed modality and has become the world’s fastest flyer, ahead of the Polish Andrzej Soltyk, with a minimum difference of 3 tenths. On the other hand, Kyra Poh won, yet again, the Gold medal in Solo Freestyle, the Vipers team in 2Way Dynamic and Nemesis in 4Speed. Regarding the rest of the Catalan wind tunnel’s reserve teams, the role of César Rico in Solo Speed must be noted, as well as the performances of the 4Speed flyers, Windoor Fighters who obtained Bronze and Windoor Vengadores that gained Silver.
Twenty Two consecutive Gold Medals for Team Hayabusa
In the FS Open Relative indoor skydiving category, the world champions, the Belgian Hayabusa, once again, ratified their title in this discipline for the fifth year consecutive, ahead of their arch-rivals, the American Arizona Airspeed. Hayabusa has won 22 consecutive gold medals and has achieved the highest score at a FS4 indoor skydiving competition ever.
In the Female division, the French flyers Weembi French Girls climbed, once more, to the top of the podium for the second-year running, followed by the English team NFTO.
Additionally, in the 4Way VFS discipline, the best was the Polish SkyRiders, after beating the Italian team Esercito.
Furthermore, the Singaporean Kyra Poh was the best Freestyle flyer, while the local flyer César Rico has become the fastest flyer in the world by winning the Solo Speed category. The dynamic skydiving podium was completed with Nemesis, who won in the team discipline 4 Way Speed, and in 2 Way Dynamic the Polish Vipers were awarded Gold while the local Windoor GB got Silver. And lastly, in the new Junior Freestyle modality, the winner was the young 12-year-old Australian, Amy Watson.
The Papea Masculino teams, Barak and Papea will be part of the National Team that will represent Spain at the European Championship in Voss (Norway), after winning the FAE Championship, which was held simultaneously in The Wind Games.
Massive participation
In addition to the athletes’ high level, the massive participation and follow-up of Internet users through social media must be noted: more than 2 million reproductions on the network. The Wind Games competition, Rico states “is the biggest indoor skydiving competition, and the most mainstream in the world, this is why, it’s a great responsibility for us to manage the vast showcase it represents. It should also be noted that each year we break records of participants, sport level and professionalism”.
The Wind Games 2018 have received support and have been sponsored by Red Bull, the Catalan Aerial Federation (FAC), the Spanish Royal Aeronautical Federation Real (RFAE), the Catalan Government, the Girona Council, the Castelló d’Empúries Town Council, ABB, amongst others.
Credit Windoor Realfly
The Wind Games 2018 – Highlights, Results and Videos
Highlights
- In Relative Indoor Skydiving (FS), the unbeatable Belgians revalidated their Gold in the demanding FS Open category, the French Weembi Girls repeated first place in the Female category, while the Polish SkyRiders proclaimed themselves winners of the 4Way VFS.
- In Dynamic Diving, the Vipers team has triumphed in the couple’s 2 Way Dynamic discipline, César Rico in the Solo Speed category, the Singaporean flyer Kyra Poh in Solo Freestyle, the Australian Amy Watson in Junior Freestyle and the combined Nemesis in the team’s 4 Way Speed category.
- The Papea Masculino teams, Barak and Papea will be part of the National Team which will represent Spain in the European VOSS, after winning the FAE Championship that was held simultaneously in The Wind Games.
- The Wind Games have been followed by more than 3 million Internet users through social media.
Results
See all the results on the Official Competition Page. Watch the Prize Giving.
Videos
Watch here some of the best clips from The Wind Games 2018 and subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more.
