posted Jan 16th, 2012 - The NSL News is going back to the 8way competition at the USPA Nationals 2011. Only the third duel between Golden Knights and the Russian Sky Panthers Barkli was covered so far since both teams are the current national teams for their countries and medal contenders at the international 8way competitions.

However, it is actually not fair to ignore the other teams of the high-profile 8way competition at Skydive Arizona last year. This time, NSL-TV features the US competition for the silver medals between Arizona Airspeed and Paraclete XP8.

There was not really a competition for the USPA gold medals this time, which is a new situation. Arizona Airspeed usually offers a great fight for the 8way gold medals, even though the team is not training and competing in 8way at the moment. The Golden Knights won the 8way competition in 2010 too (19.9 - 19.1) but the US Army team had to work for it. The difference between the two best US 8way teams in 2011 was bigger than ever before.

USPA Nationals 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	8way Open Class	1,16,C	22,F,11	21,15,2	5,P,D,17	8,Q,3	O,M,G,10	9,12,19	A,N,14,J	4,H,20	E,18,B,7	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	26	23	19	19	21	20	17	23	24	20	212	21.2
2	Sky Panthers Barkli	22	24	16	10	19	17	15	18	19	17	177	17.7
3	Arizona Airspeed	24	17	17	11	17	15	13	18	23	15	170	17.0
4	Paraclete XP8	19	19	16	11	14	17	14	18	18	17	163	16.3

Golden Knights and Arizona Airspeed always had a close competition whenever both teams had decently trained 8way lineups. The difference between both 8way teams was only significant when either one focused on 4way while the other one was training more for 8way, as it was in 2001 (18.2 Airspeed - 15.5 Golden Knights).

It became easier every year for Airspeed to win the USPA 8way title without any training when the Golden Knights put an 8way lineup together only for the USPA Nationals. There were even a few years (2006 - 2008) when there was no complete Golden Knights lineups in 8way. Airspeed won with the biggest difference of 4.1 (17.7 - 13.6) at the USPA Nationals 2007 - until last year.

The Golden Knights eliminated this record difference of 2007 with a 4.2 distance (21.2 - 17.0) to Airspeed at the USPA Nationals 2011. Airspeed's 17.0 average last year was also the second lowest 8way result in the team's history. Only the 16.7 average of the 2004 lineup at the USPA Nationals was lower - after gold medals with a 19.1 average a few months earlier at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia.

Airspeed's 8way lineup at the USPA Nationals 2011 surely had the better known names. It was in fact a legendary lineup. The complete 4way team (Mark Kirkby, Niklas Hemlin, Thomas Hughes, Josh Hall) joined forces with Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard, Dan BC and Jack Jefferies. It can't get much better as of Formation Skydiving competition history. Bill Schmitz was filming, and alternate Christopher Irwin made a few jumps when Mark Kirkby did not feel well.

The "Airspeed B-Team", Paraclete XP8, had only one single members who had never been with Airspeed: John D'Annunzio. Kirk Verner, Andy Honigbaum, John Eagle, Dennis Rook, Andy Delk, Brian Johnson, Todd Hawkins and John Hamilton had their time and won their medals with Airspeed at some point in time. Matt McLean was filming XP8 in Eloy.

The Airspeed A-Team ended up seven points behind Sky Panthers Barkli and won USPA silver medals. The Airspeed B-Team won the bronze medals for Paraclete, another seven points behind. XP8's 16.3 average in 4th place was exactly the score that won the bronze medals at the World Cup 2011...