SINGAPORE – Soon after completing his routine at the World Air Sports Federation (FAI) World Cup of Indoor Skydiving (WCIS) in Macau on April 20, Kai Minejima-Lee burst into tears.
However, those were tears of relief and joy, as the 15-year-old Singaporean clinched the solo freestyle title in his open-category debut with 71.7 points to edge out American James Rogers (68.8) and Latvian Toms Ivans (67.4) at the GoAirborne Macau.
Isabelle Koh was the other Singaporean to strike gold, collecting 72.4 points to finish ahead of Hungary’s Mate Feith (72.2) and Australia’s Ariel Zarah Gilbert Daborn (66.3) for the solo freestyle junior title.
For Kai, the open title marked the culmination of a stressful few months.
The home-schooled teenager said: “There was so much hard work put into that.
“The win really meant so much to me that after my last round, I couldn’t control it and I started crying because there were so many emotions coming up after that.”
The solo freestyle junior champion from the 2023 WCIS had found out only in February that he would be in the open category after teammate Kyra Poh suffered an injury.
Competing against older skydivers, including former WCIS winner Ivans who had taught him before, was also nerve-racking for the Singaporean, especially as he was unsure whether to watch his rivals’ routines while waiting for his turn during the final round.
He said: “At first I was like, I need to not look, but in the end I wanted to show the world the routine I’d worked so hard on one last time.
“Watching everyone’s routines made me even hungrier to put out the best performance that I can.”
Isabelle, 16, was happy with her improvement after she finished fourth in the same category at the 2023 world championships.
The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student said: “I’m very glad I was able to deliver one of the best performances of my life.
“I feel like my effort really paid off and I’m very proud of the result.”
Singapore also returned with a silver in the dynamic four-way open category through Vera Poh, Choo Yi Xuan, Jordan Lee and Kai; in addition to a bronze from Isabelle and Lee in the dynamic two-way open.
They were represented by their largest-ever contingent of 21 athletes at the WCIS, held in conjunction with the Asian Indoor Skydiving Championships and European Indoor Skydiving Championships.
