Russia to host parachute jumping world cup for the first time

The parachute jumping world cup in memory of Anton Malevsky will be held in Russia for the first time in the country's sports history on July 29 at the Stupino airdrome, 90 km south of Moscow.

The decision to give the tournament a world cup status was taken at the 54th plenary meeting of the International Parachuting Commission in early 2003, world cup press service chief Mikhail Novitsky said at a press conference.

The "main parachuter of the world," Bruce Jeffrey Fort, president of the parachuting commission of the International Aviation Federation, took part in the first international tournament in memory of Anton Malevsky in 2002.

We look at Russia as a very promising partner in conducting championships in various parachuting events, Fort said. All the more so that the prestige of Russian sportsmen is very high in the world, he added.

The tournament director, Andrei Yefimov, said the sportsmen would compete in two classical events - group aerobatics and landing precision.

Yefimov's forecast is that struggle for the first place will be between the U.S. and Spanish teams, and the Russians will struggle for the third place.

Taking part in the world cup championship will be the teams of Russia, the U.S., Italy, Denmark, Ukraine, Belarus, Finland, Poland and Moldova.