Monika Bekhit wins the military world title in accuracy landing, Polish women third in the World Cup

Major Monika Bekhit, a reserve officer, won women's accuracy landing at the 48th CISM World Military Parachuting Championship, the International Military Sports Council's event held in Lučenec, Slovakia. Her seven rounds added up to 12 cm. Captain Ewa Wesołowska took silver on 14 cm and Austria's Sophie Grill took bronze on 16 cm. Both Poles represent the Polish Armed Forces' High-Altitude Rescue and Parachute Training Centre (OSWRiS) in Poznań. The official results, signed by the chief judge on 22 August 2026, were published by the FAI International Skydiving Commission's results centre.

Decided in the last round

Forty-one women competed. According to the Polish military magazine Polska Zbrojna, China's Yue Li led before the final round on 9 cm, Bekhit was second on 11 cm, and Wesołowska and China's Huili Gao were level on 13 cm. Li scored 18 cm on her last jump and dropped out of the medals. Both Poles landed 1 cm from the centre, which put them first and second, and Grill secured bronze with a dead-centre landing.

In the team event Poland placed fifth on 109 points, behind China, Italy, Spain and South Korea. The organisers left the final round out of the team standings because one South Korean competitor did not make her jump. Polska Zbrojna notes that this was the round in which Poland did best, and that with it counted the team would have won bronze. Bekhit told the magazine she had been afraid the seventh round of the individual event would be annulled as well. ‘Fortunately the championship rules gave no grounds for a change, and I was the one who got to hear the Polish anthem played in Lučenec,’ she said (Skyluma's translation).

Both women have competed in Lučenec before. At the military championship held there in 2000, Monika Bekhit, then competing as Filipowska, won silver and Ewa Wesołowska, then Rybacka, won bronze. Poland's men did not reach the podium this year. The best of them, Junior Warrant Officer Rafał Zgierski, a reservist from the 2nd Reconnaissance Regiment in Hrubieszów, finished 22nd, and the men's team was 13th of 24.

Three podiums in the World Cup

Running alongside was the Skydive World Cup Series, known in Poland as the accuracy landing World Cup. In 2026 it had six events: Corbas in France, Lesce in Slovenia, Strakonice in the Czech Republic, Belluno in Italy, Thalgau in Austria and Locarno in Switzerland. The women's Polish Military Team, entered by the Poznań centre, finished third three times: at Strakonice in July, at Thalgau on 11–13 September, where four women's teams took part, and at Locarno on 18–20 September.

At the Locarno final Bekhit also placed third individually, on 10 cm with two dead-centre landings. France's Léocadie Ollivier de Pury won on 5 cm ahead of Switzerland's Erica Franz on 7 cm, in a field of 24 women. Among the women's teams the Swiss team Paradodendro came first on 102 points and Italy's Esercito 2 second on 104, with Poland on 174.

The overall women's team standings were won by Paradodendro on 1,125 points ahead of the Czech team Aeroclub Pilsen on 845. Poland scored 835 and finished third of the seven teams ranked. Locarno did not count towards this classification, as Polska Zbrojna reports and as the series table on the Airshots results platform shows, with its Locarno column empty. Individually Bekhit, second at Strakonice and third at Locarno, finished seventh in the series on 178 points. The women's series went to Ollivier de Pury, who won the events in France, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Back after an eight-year break

Colonel Krzysztof Szopiński, a reserve officer who chairs the Parachute Commission of Aeroklub Polski, the Polish aero club, told Polska Zbrojna that a great deal had changed since Major Bekhit returned to jumping after an eight-year break. ‘She has achieved more than she herself, or anyone else, expected,’ he said (Skyluma's translation). A year earlier, Captain Wesołowska had been the only Polish woman ranked in the women's World Cup standings, in ninth place.