Gold again for Jersey skydiving team

Saturday 16 June 2018

Another jump, another gold medal for the Jersey Beans.The island's first four-way formation skydiving team struck gold again, by just one point, in the second round of the UK Skydiving league in Langar.

This second medal comes just a month after Claire Allen, Liam Hardman, Hedi Green and Michael Stocks took gold in Dunkeswell, in their first ever competition.

While they had achieved a convincing lead of 27 points in the first competition, this time around at Langar airfield near Melton Mowbray, the Jersey Beans faced tougher opponents. They scored just one more point than the runner-ups "Funnel the Tunnel."

Hedi Green said: "We are all very excited to have won gold again at the second leg of the UKSL. The competition was intense with more teams competing this time round."

While the team made it back with a medal, there was a point in the competition when they didn't think it would happen. Hedi said: "We didn’t have our regular cameraman (Luke Gale), who is an integral member of the team, we used a camera flyer from a camera pool. "Regrettably he managed to get 2 points deducted from our score during the competition through what’s known as a ‘bust’. This is when either an incorrect grip is taken or the cameraman doesn’t get the team in shot for the judges to be able to observe if the formation was performed correctly. Despite this we all dug very deep and managed to win by one point."

Video: The Jersey Beans in Dunkeswell.

Now back on firm land, the team is getting ready for the next UK Skydiving league, which will be held at Cark Airfield in July. After that they aim to hit the UK National Championships, "one of the biggest ones in the world," says Hedi, along with hundreds of teams. "We want to put Jersey on the map and help get skydiving flagged as a serious sport. People think it's a hobby but it's serious competition."