Pride after a fall for student dropping gold

But this Sheffield student deserves a mention.

Ranmoor's Katherine Rybinski drops out for the right reasons.

And she does it from a plane, at speeds of 125 mph and just about every weekend.

Katherine, you see, is part of a four-way team which won gold at the European Skydiving League Junior Category Finals in Belgium.

It's rich reward for the girl's dedication to a sport which has seen her take the plunge more than 270 times in just two years.

Question is why would anyone ever want to do it?

"I first got involved with sky diving when I visited a stall at the Student Union," said the former Tapton School girl now studying geography at Leeds Uni.

"I was very nervous on my first but the nerves started to fade by the time I had done 20 jumps.

"Now the only nerves I get are competition nerves."

In four-way formation skydiving, the team exit from 10,500ft and are filmed by a cameraman who jumps with them. The footage is then watched by the judges on the ground.

Katherine said: "You have 35 seconds from exiting the aircraft to repeat formations as many times as possible.

"The team completing the most formations wins. Once the 35 seconds are up, you track away from each other and deploy your parachute."

The successful team - Katherine, Nick Lord and Amy Kitson, all aged 21, and Tom Hibbard, 30 - met at Target Skysports, near Scunthorpe.

"We decided to call ourselves 4-Play as everyone loves 4-Play," she said with a cheeky grin.

Katherine says they do most of their training on the deck to save money.

"We have spent a lot of time on the ground 'creeping' which is where you practice the formations while lying on a bit of wood with wheels.

"Obviously anything you do on the ground is free. And you never plummet to your death this way."

Katherine says her parents are thrilled by her hobby.

"In fact my mum finds it so exciting she recently did a tandem dive herself."

Away from competition Kathryn took part in a formation dive with 67 other women - all dressed in red - to raise cash for the Red Cross.

She said: "I just love the excitement."

But the job chosen by this adrenaline junkie may surprise you. "Once I graduate I will be joining KPMG as an accountant. It's boring I know - but at least it pays for the jump fees."

Log onto www.skydiveleeds.co.uk/index.php?page=videos to see the team in action.