(Sports focus) Hungarian wingsuit flyer Kovats missing in China worlds

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Hungarian veteran wingsuit flyer Victor Kovats is missing after failing to deploy his parachute prior to landing at the world championship staged here in central China on Tuesday.

So far, it's not known if Kovats is alive, as it's difficult to locate his landing spot without a GPS system attached to him.

Kovats took his flying at the windy afternoon at China's well-known scenic spot Zhang Jiajie, a gorgeous mountainous area that attracted the fiction movie Avatar by Canadian director James Cameron to shoot views.

It's the second consecutive year for Zhang Jiajie to host the wingsuit flying world championship and 16 flyers from around the world took the adventure this year.

Contestants took only trials on Tuesday with Kovats jumping off as the fourth one. However, a gust derailed Kovats from the planned route, and even worse the parachute failed to open due to technical problem.

The rescue team can only carry out searching by foot in the forests with no helicopter available on the spot. Kovats has not been found as the darkness descends.

Kovats, an extreme-sport veteran, has taken extreme parachuting 1,250 times, low altitude parachuting 250 times and wingsuit jumping 700 times. He is the winner of 2012 Pro wingsuit flying and triple champion of Hungary wingsuit base flying.

Wingsuit flying is the sport of flying the human body through the air using a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit, which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift. A wingsuit flight normally ends with a parachute opening. So a wingsuit can safely be flown from any point that provides sufficient altitude for flight and parachute deployment. Endi

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