She was the solo freestyle junior two-time defending champion at the 2017 FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships and would have been odds-on favourites to retain her title again this year.

Instead, Singapore's Kyra Poh chose to compete in the open category at the April 17-20 event in Lille, France, and the move almost paid off for the 16-year-old. She finished second on 73.6 points, just 0.1 behind Rafael Schwaiger from Germany after a jump-off round.

She said: "Though I've started competing in the open category of other events, the best flyers in the world are here, including some of my coaches.

Kyra, who was second in the open category of the World Cup of Indoor Skydiving last year, added: "Flying isn't just a competition to me. It's my passion, so what matters the most is not what medal I can win, but how far I can push myself in the sport.

"It's only right that I push myself to take up a new challenge to see where I would place against the strongest flyers in the world."

Also, as Team Firefly, Kyra and Choo Yi Xuan, 17, competed in the dynamic two-way event and were fifth among 22 teams, while Yi Xuan was fourth in the solo freestyle junior category in her debut outing in this event.

Of the two-way event, Yi Xuan said: "We could have done better... but we are glad that our routine scored the highest for technical difficulty." The competition saw over 300 indoor skydivers from 31 countries competing in five disciplines.