The best skydivers from across the globe descended on Bedford last weekend for the world's only indoor competition.

Almost 200 people took part in the third annual Indoor Skydiving World Challenge at Bodyflight, in Clapham, the world's largest skydiving wind tunnel.

Event organiser Bryony Doughty said: "We expected a lot of teams to take part, but nowhere near the number of top class crews that eventually entered.

"The world's elite came along, showing that this is now a highly prestigious event, and everyone here at Bodyflight is very proud of that."

A total of 40 teams of four members competed in the formation tournament, and 14 teams of two took part in the freeflight competition.

But instead of leaping out of an aeroplane at 15,000ft, the competitors stepped into a massive wind tunnel where they were buffeted into the air by winds reaching speeds of up to 170mph.

The teams then had between 35 seconds and a minute to perform as many set manoeuvres as possible, just like in a regular skydiving
competition. And, aside from hovering just six feet in the air, there was one other major difference – routines could be performed to music.

Ms Doughty added: "It was amazing to see routines for some of the competition choreographed to music. We are the only facility in the world which offers this and it was fantastic."

Nearly all the competitors were actual skydivers, with one notable exception. Team Future, from Colorado, are too young – Justin Tinucci is just nine and his sister Kayla is 12, but in the USA the age limit for parachuting is 18.

Justin said: "There are only 3,200-and-something days until I can do it for real!"

Amazingly, Team Future still managed to finish sixth in the freeflight competition, beating many international crews.

The event's eventual winner was Body Flight Mamba, a South African and Austrian duo, while the winner of the formation tournament was Air Speed Odyssey, the USA international team who are the competition's reigning champions.

The all-female team Bodyflight Storm, which won the national skydiving
championships last year, represented Britain.

Team member Kate Stephens, 33, said: "The wind tunnel is very much like the real thing and you have to concentrate just as much in there as you would if you were freefalling from a plane. One bad move, because you have a foot or a hand in the wrong place, and your whole routine can be ruined.

"We can get 30 minutes of flying time in one hour here but if we used planes, then 30 jumps would take two days."

The wind tunnel was originally built by the Ministry of Defence in 1950 to test planes and is just under five metres in diameter.