Namibian skydivers set new heights
Namibian skydivers set new heights

Namibian skydivers set new heights

Dorcas Mhungu
Ground Rush Adventures held its annual national skydiving club championship on 4 February.

The event was held in order to develop skills and promote competition.

Skydivers at both junior and intermediate level, took up the challenge of jumping from 10 500 feet and competing in a two-way formation team setup.

Anticipation was already flying high before the competition started, with team Organic Pirates (Bianca van der Westhuizen and Grégoire Cavlli) being the outright favourites to take the championship.

Other favourites in the competition were team Lean and Mean (Bernt Bruns and Peter Verdnyn) and Team Zac Attack (Marc Gregan and Ewert Strauss) respectively.

However, the competition proved much more unpredictable with none of the three favourite teams reaching the podium.

With only five points separating the top seven teams after the two rounds, it was Team Sky Bosses (Mias Rambo and Jean Basson) who took the honours to be crowned Ground Rush National Club Champions of 2017. In second place was Team Chop and Dop (Dries van Zyl and Dawie Olivier) followed by third placed Team Sky Surfers (Jannie van der Westhuizen and Anne Bonfert).

Accuracy landing was also a hugely entertaining part of the day, with Anne Bonfert landing only 2.95 meters away from the designated landing area in the junior category, while Grégoire Cavlli's landing measured at 7.18 meters in the intermediate accuracy challenge.

Ground Rush Adventures also acknowledged skydivers that excelled in 2016 with Marc Gregan flying high with Skydiver of the year and Anne Bonfert named the best performing junior of the year.

The competition was made up of two rounds with different dive plans, allowing the two-way teams only 30 seconds to accumulate as many points as possible.

Teams consisted of junior and senior skydivers of different skill levels, making the contest equally well-matched.

Twenty skydivers split up into 10 teams for this challenge and showcased some excellent skills and entertained the crowd that witnessed this spectacular skydiving event in Namibia. Ground Rush Adventures is renowned for its world class training for students who want to start skydiving. Through this, the number of local jumpers has increased.

It is their aim at some point to send a Namibian team to compete against South Africa during their national championship.

Ground Rush Adventures and all the participating skydivers lauded sponsors for making the event a huge success.



Sponsors are

2 Beards Coffee, Africa Online, Alter Action Sandboarding, Aquanaut Tours, Café Anton, Desert Tavern, Ground Rush Adventures, Icarus Airwear, Jangwa Adventures Namibia, LR Parts, Namibia Breweries, OTB, Interpack – Red Bull, Sovereign, Swakopmund Hotel and Entertainment Centre, The Fun Shop, Village Café and Werner Lassen.

Sports Reporter

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Namibian Sun 2024-09-20

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LaLiga: Leganés 0 vs 2 Athletic Club | Real Betis 2 vs 1 Getafe | Mallorca 1 vs 0 Real Sociedad Katima Mulilo: 25° | 39° Rundu: 20° | 39° Eenhana: 17° | 36° Oshakati: 15° | 34° Ruacana: 16° | 35° Tsumeb: 19° | 34° Otjiwarongo: 13° | 32° Omaruru: 14° | 32° Windhoek: 11° | 28° Gobabis: 9° | 30° Henties Bay: 11° | 18° Wind speed: 22km/h, Wind direction: W, Low tide: 06:23, High tide: 12:53, Low Tide: 19:02, High tide: 01:16 Swakopmund: 12° | 14° Wind speed: 22km/h, Wind direction: NW, Low tide: 06:21, High tide: 12:51, Low Tide: 19:00, High tide: 01:14 Walvis Bay: 11° | 17° Wind speed: 23km/h, Wind direction: N, Low tide: 06:21, High tide: 12:50, Low Tide: 19:00, High tide: 01:13 Rehoboth: 7° | 29° Mariental: 7° | 26° Keetmanshoop: 6° | 24° Aranos: 6° | 27° Lüderitz: 14° | 27° Ariamsvlei: 6° | 23° Oranjemund: 15° | 30° Luanda: 22° | 24° Gaborone: 11° | 17° Lubumbashi: 18° | 36° Mbabane: 8° | 9° Maseru: 3° | 13° Antananarivo: 11° | 28° Lilongwe: 21° | 31° Maputo: 14° | 15° Windhoek: 11° | 28° Cape Town: 10° | 21° Durban: 13° | 14° Johannesburg: 7° | 9° Dar es Salaam: 23° | 29° Lusaka: 21° | 34° Harare: 17° | 30° Currency: GBP to NAD 23.28 | EUR to NAD 19.58 | CNY to NAD 2.49 | USD to NAD 17.56 | DZD to NAD 0.13 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.29 | EGP to NAD 0.35 | KES to NAD 0.14 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.65 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.23 | RUB to NAD 0.19 | INR to NAD 0.21 | USD to DZD 132.02 | USD to AOA 926.84 | USD to BWP 13.17 | USD to EGP 48.48 | USD to KES 128.48 | USD to NGN 1593.37 | USD to ZAR 17.56 | USD to ZMW 26.45 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index Same 0 | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1838.95 Up +1.41% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 14184.33 Up +0.68% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 30937.69 Up +1.96% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI 9651.25 Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 612.22/OZ UP +0.96% | Copper US$ 4.32/lb UP +0.10% | Zinc US$ 2 917.50/T DOWN -0.66% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 74.54/BBP DOWN -0.0047 | Platinum US$ 984.48/OZ UP +0.18% Sport results: LaLiga: Leganés 0 vs 2 Athletic Club | Real Betis 2 vs 1 Getafe | Mallorca 1 vs 0 Real Sociedad Weather: Katima Mulilo: 25° | 39° Rundu: 20° | 39° Eenhana: 17° | 36° Oshakati: 15° | 34° Ruacana: 16° | 35° Tsumeb: 19° | 34° Otjiwarongo: 13° | 32° Omaruru: 14° | 32° Windhoek: 11° | 28° Gobabis: 9° | 30° Henties Bay: 11° | 18° Wind speed: 22km/h, Wind direction: W, Low tide: 06:23, High tide: 12:53, Low Tide: 19:02, High tide: 01:16 Swakopmund: 12° | 14° Wind speed: 22km/h, Wind direction: NW, Low tide: 06:21, High tide: 12:51, Low Tide: 19:00, High tide: 01:14 Walvis Bay: 11° | 17° Wind speed: 23km/h, Wind direction: N, Low tide: 06:21, High tide: 12:50, Low Tide: 19:00, High tide: 01:13 Rehoboth: 7° | 29° Mariental: 7° | 26° Keetmanshoop: 6° | 24° Aranos: 6° | 27° Lüderitz: 14° | 27° Ariamsvlei: 6° | 23° Oranjemund: 15° | 30° Luanda: 22° | 24° Gaborone: 11° | 17° Lubumbashi: 18° | 36° Mbabane: 8° | 9° Maseru: 3° | 13° Antananarivo: 11° | 28° Lilongwe: 21° | 31° Maputo: 14° | 15° Windhoek: 11° | 28° Cape Town: 10° | 21° Durban: 13° | 14° Johannesburg: 7° | 9° Dar es Salaam: 23° | 29° Lusaka: 21° | 34° Harare: 17° | 30° Economic Indicators: Currency: GBP to NAD 23.28 | EUR to NAD 19.58 | CNY to NAD 2.49 | USD to NAD 17.56 | DZD to NAD 0.13 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.29 | EGP to NAD 0.35 | KES to NAD 0.14 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.65 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.23 | RUB to NAD 0.19 | INR to NAD 0.21 | USD to DZD 132.02 | USD to AOA 926.84 | USD to BWP 13.17 | USD to EGP 48.48 | USD to KES 128.48 | USD to NGN 1593.37 | USD to ZAR 17.56 | USD to ZMW 26.45 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index Same 0 | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1838.95 Up +1.41% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 14184.33 Up +0.68% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 30937.69 Up +1.96% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI 9651.25 Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 612.22/OZ UP +0.96% | Copper US$ 4.32/lb UP +0.10% | Zinc US$ 2 917.50/T DOWN -0.66% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 74.54/BBP DOWN -0.0047 | Platinum US$ 984.48/OZ UP +0.18%