Skydiving success for West Bridgford PC

The thought of jumping out of a plane would give most people nightmares but for one West Bridgford PC it's a dream come true.

Pc 3037 Hannah Betts, along with Sarah Smith from Whatton, Nottinghamshire; Claire Scott from Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire and Kate Stephens from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire make Team Storm, the all female formation skydiving team who won the British National Formation Skydiving Championships.

Now they plan to repeat their victory at the World Championships in France next year.

The team stormed to success with a 16 point victory at the British National Formation Skydiving Championships held last month in Lincolnshire, which saw ten teams competing to complete as many pre-set formations as possible in 35 seconds whilst falling at speeds of up to 120mph.

In order to become British Champions, all four team members gave up their jobs this May in order to train full time, managing to complete 700 skydives before the competition. Hannah took a career break to fit in her gruelling training schedule which consists of up to 18 skydives a day. Hannah was the beat manager for Compton Acres and Lutterell for two years and she aims to return to work after the competition. PC 3038 Alan Mills took over her role as beat manager for the area.

Team Storm member 34-year-old Claire‘ Sparky' Scott said: “The result hasn't really sunk in yet. Not the fact that we won, but the fact we obliterated the competition by such a massive margin!!

“Skydiving is about speed, accuracy determination and strength. The team is judged by the number of formations built in 35 seconds - the current world record is 47 formations! “

Hannah Betts, 29, added: "It's great to be able to compete alongside the men as well as the women, and even greater to beat them, we really hope it encourages more women to go and have a go at what is seen as a 'male dominated, dare devil sport!'"

The girls have been training at Skydive Langar in Nottinghamshire and in California. They are supporting women and children's charities associated with their sponsor HCC Global.

A fifth team member, cameraperson Gary Wainwright from Nottingham, filmed the jump and the footage was then watched by the judges to score the team's performance. A four-way team will win a competition by correctly completing more formations and scoring more points than the other teams.

“On paper it looked like a long shot, but our team was committed to training hard and giving everything we had to performing our best. I am now looking forward to representing the UK next year,” commented 30-year-old Sarah Smith.

Kate Stephens, 32, said: “I am really excited we have won, but now we have our sights firmly set on the World Championships next year so the work has already begun to keep us very much focused on our ultimate goal”

The World Championships will be held in France in August 2008, and the team hope to make around 1000 training jumps between now and the competition. They will continue to train in Perris Valley, California under the watchful eye of their American coach Dan Brodsky Chenfeld (multiple World Champion), as well as at the Bodyflight Wind Tunnel in Bedford.