The win happened over the weekend, with nearly 30 teams competing for the title. Chimera will be attending the World Skydiving Championships in Eloy, Arizona in October 2022 where they will represent Great Britain.

Speaking of the win, Sarah Ashworth, who holds the position of ‘point’ in Chimera and grew up in Woodbridge, Suffolk, said:

“It’s been an incredible journey and we are so proud of what we’ve been able to achieve. It’s been a long road to this point, and we’ve had ups and downs along the way; to come out victorious this weekend was a genuine dream come true for us all.

“We look forward to using our new title to inspire other people to try skydiving and to learn formation skydiving in particular.”

The team comprises five members - Laura Hampton, James Woods, Sarah Ashworth, Will Cooke and Pete Harries - with the four ‘performers’ holding on to each other to create shapes, or formations, and one camera flyer responsible for capturing the skydive using a camera mounted to their helmet.

Chimera regularly trains at Skydive Langar in Nottingham. They expect to continue their training there in the run up to the world meet.

A number of teams from Skydive Langar attended the competition, including Silver Linings, Alola, Eros, Winged Hussars, L3, DNF and Spread Eagles. The centre aims to be a centre for training excellence and has increased the amount of coaching available to skydiving teams in recent years.

Skydiving in the UK has grown significantly in popularity in recent years, with many citing the so-called ‘experience economy’ and the lockdowns as the reason for people seeking a new, exhilarating challenge. Skydive Langar is the biggest and busiest skydiving centre in the UK, completing around 40,000 skydives per year, with typically 10% of those being tandem jumps and the rest being sports jumpers, including students from the University of Nottingham.