posted Dec 23rd, 2012 - The NSL News goes back to one of the topics of the past years, the unofficial Scandinavian championship at the world meets.

The special, exclusively Scandinavian, leaderboard shows only the teams from the northern countries of Europe who have been a consistent and reliable, often very competitive part at the World Championships of Formation Skydiving.

The Scandinavian countries with very small but passionate skydiving populations have even produced several medal winners in the past two decades.

Denmark won 4way Open Class bronze medals in 1993 and 1995 and Norway in 1999, 2001 and 2003.

Six teams from Scandinavia competed in Dubai this year, and the results at the Mondial 2012 had once again several special contributions and meanings.

The most important one is probably the fact that the winner of this special and internal Scandinavian race comes from Sweden for the first time: Bardagi.

It is also a special occasion on the Scandinavian leaderboard that the team in 2nd place is a female lineup.

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Scandinavian team rankings between 1985 and 2012

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Polaris from Norway outscored four of the five other teams from Scandinavia and allowed only Bardagi to take a higher spot on the special leaderboard.

Polaris won the bronze medals in the female 4way competition in Dubai with the 17.8 average after ten rounds.

The Scandinavian leaderboard also shows the point deductions for each team and the placements after eight rounds, which were completed by all six Scandinavian teams.

Polaris completed ten rounds in the female 4way category after making all cuts on the way to the bronze medals.

Fire from Sweden survived the first cut and was one point ahead of the Danish Divas who then took the slot in the finals away from the Swedish team in Round 9 and completed ten rounds, as well. The rankings after Round 8 had Fire in front of the Divas.

The Silver Knights from Finland in their second AAA Class competition were so close to Bodyflight Voluntas because the team from Denmark was hammered by point deductions, most of them related to video problems after the exit.

Voluntas would have been much closer to Polaris with a cleaner scoresheet, but not close enough for a real threat or a slot in the semifinals of the Open Class competition.

Mondial Dubai 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	Scandinavia	5,12,E	6,D,B,K	O,8,7	N,13,18	10,21,M	19,H,11	C,G,1,A	20,9,15	16,F,P,Q	2,J,4	Total	Avg
1	Bardagi (SE)	17	26	20	14	16	15(-2)	23	17(-2)	(24)(-2)	-	148	19.1
2	Polaris (NO)	15	25	19	14	16	16	21	15(-1)	(21)	(16)	141	17.8
3	Bodyflight Voluntas (DK)	15	21(-1)	17	10(-3)	13(-3)	11(-4)	18(-1)	12(-1)	-	-	117	14.6
4	Silver Knights (FI)	13	18	16	10	13	14	18	12	-	-	114	14.3
5	Fire (SE)	10(-3)	16	14	12	12	14	16	11	(17)	-	105	13.6
6	Danish Divas (DK)	10(-1)	16	14	10	13	12	16	13	(19)	(13)	102	13.6

Bardagi from Sweden on the other side of the Kattegat Sea has many good reasons to celebrate.

The 19.1 average after Round 9 is the highest meet average that a team from Sweden has ever posted, and the top spot on the Scandinavian leaderboard is well deserved. It is also only the second time that a team from Sweden was not cut after Round 8.

Only the Swedish national team of 1993 had a stronger finish on the international leaderboard of a World Meet with a 5th place for the 14.8 average. It was a very strong year for Scandinavia, as Finland placed 4th (14.9) and Denmark (16.9) won the bronze medals in Eloy.

The Swedish national team of 1997 made the first cut, as well. However, it was much easier by then, as 50% of the 38 teams qualified for the semifinals after Round 8. Phoenix was in the same 10th place in Gap 2003 that Bardagi finished in this year.

Only eight teams made it into the semifinals by then, and Phoenix was stopped after Round 8. Swedish Team 42 was also close to a slot in the semifinals with a 10th place after Round 6 at the World Meet 2006. However, the German weather did not allow any more rounds.

It is not unusual that competitors from Sweden are on the world's 4way top level. In fact, Niklas Hemlin is the new and reigning 4way world champion with Arizona Airspeed. He was born and raised as a skydiver in Sweden and later moved to the USA to become a citizen and world class competitor.

Mathias Nord was another world class 4way competitor from Sweden who chose to compete for another country at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving.

He first represented Sweden at the World Meet 2003 in Gap and then joined Norway's Arcteryx lineup to compete at the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge. Arcteryx with Center Inside Mathias Nord made the finals and placed 5th with a 22.5 average.

Bardagi's 10th place in Dubai with the 19.1 record average will hopefully be inspiring and bring the team back next year.

The 6th place with the attached last slot in the finals was only ten points away (Satori), as the four best "amateur teams" battled it out and pushed each other for this special honor. Ex3mo won the "amateur title" for Italy. The slot in the finals could be Bardagi's next goal...