Paul’s Rankings for 1998
The quality of the competition was outstanding this year, making it very difficult to pick a clear winner. Every display was unique and enjoyable and there is very little to seperate the teams from each other. However, I will be bold and give my overall ratings of all the displays and try and pick the three winners.
First of all, a small critique of each display:
- Italy – Incredible choreography and synchronization, with choice of music which really highlighted this, especially the note-by-note effects. Good colours, beautiful shells, especially the multi-breaks and the best finale of the competition.
- France – Some very unusual effects, from smokey fireballs to bee-like crossettes. Excellent colours and nice use of rockets. Overall good synchronization and music.
- Canada – Smooth flowing display with excellent synchronization and choreography. Good choice of material including girandolas and nice use of rockets and nautic mines. Good finale.
- Spain – Fantastic girandolas, incredible colours, especially the blues. Synchronization not as tight as some but a fantastic finale. Music not to everyone’s taste.
- Austria – Great material, fantastic nautic mines, synchronization not as tight as some but good choice of music. Great finale.
- China – Incredibly complex display with a very theatrical style and great choregraphy and synchronization (technical difficulties excepted). Lots of unusual material but a pity that the periods of darkness spoiled the rhythm.
- Germany – Best use of rockets. Some nice material including girandolas. Good synchronization but the initial theme of the display was lost part way through. Rather unexciting finale.
- United States – Very artistically choregraphed. Very complex display with seamless flow throughout. Excellent synchronization though the music didn’t always exploit this. Great choice of material. Would be perfect with a slightly more dramatic finale.
My pick for the prizes this year is:
- Gold – Spain
- Silver – Italy
- Bronze – United States
- 4th – France
- 5th – Canada
- 6th – Austria
- 7th – Germany
- 8th – China – Due to technical difficulties – otherwise a Jupiter winner
The competition was very close this year and knowing the order of the competitors my predications for the jury’s results are:
- Gold – United States
- Silver – Italy
- Bronze – Spain
Official Results
- Gold Jupiter Performance Pyrotechnic Associates, United States
- Silver Jupiter Ipon S.R.L., Italy
- Bronze Jupiter Ricardo Caballer, Spain
- Special Jupiter Richard Shaw, Canada, for recognition of years of service responsible for safety at the firing ramps