posted Oct 23rd, 2013 - The latest Sun Path Products NSL News contribution for Blue Skies Mag discussed the female 4way category that the FAI/IPC introduced in 2001. The story concluded with the fact that the different leaderboards for 4way Open Class and 4way Women can always be compared indirectly and "with a few strokes on the keyboard".

Several Sun Path Products NSL News stories in the past included manipulated and combined leaderboards. Most of the times, the question was how the female 4way teams would have ended up on the Open Class leaderboard, as both categories are using exactly the same AAA Class dive pool and competition draw.

This time, the leaderboards are being manipulated the opposite way. The USPA Nationals don't have a separate leaderboard for the female 4way teams, as hardly any country has such at national championships. Only Germany applies the FAI/IPC rules directly and had one lonely team ranked in 4way Women, while ten other teams competed in 4way Open with the same draw.

USPA Nationals 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Women	G,9,C,P	F,5,15	1,E,8	4,M,7	H,N,B,O,3	14,20,L	Q,K,12,17	11,16,19	10,A,18	2,22,D	Total	Avg
4	Golden Knights (US)	26(-1)	22	17	22	28	15(-1)	21	17	16	17	201(-2)	20.1
10	Dubai Asaar Ladies (AE)	20(-1)	13(-2)	14	14(-2)	19(-2)	12	15	15	10(-2)	13	145(-9)	14.5
13	Fuzion (CA)	13(-6)	13(-1)	12(-2)	19	19	12(-1)	15	8(-2)	13	13	137(-12)	13.7

Dubai Asaar Ladies	Parachute Montreal Fuzion

The USPA Nationals 2013 had a total of 70 teams competing in traditional 4way at Skydive Chicago, and the Sun Path Products NSL News now went searching for the female lineups.

It was not much work to create the leaderboard for the female 4way competition. There were only three teams with all-female lineups, and two of them were guest teams from Canada (Parachute Montreal Fuzion) and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai Asaar Ladies). The Golden Knights' 4way team, bronze medal winner in the Open Class, was the only female team at the national championships.

That does not mean that there were not a lot of female 4way competitors - there were plenty. The 41 teams in the Intermediate Class included only six all-male lineups. The other 35 teams had boys and girls play together in all possible combinations. The 14 teams in the Advanced Class had five all-male lineups and nine mixed ones. The gender separation was most significant in the Open Class, with seven male lineups, three female and five mixed teams.

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	4way Women	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
2	Golden Knights (US)	19	27	21	15	18	19	21	17	26	18	201	20.1
12	Dubai Asaar Ladies (AE)	11	16	12	8	11	9	13	11	-	-	91	11.4
13	Crimson Fox (CA)	11	14	13	8	11	9	12	10	-	-	88	11.0

The three national female teams from the USA, Canada and United Arab Emirates finished in the same order as at the Mondial Dubai 2012. The Golden Knights, silver medalist in Dubai 2012, finished as far ahead of the guest teams as last year. However, the situation between Dubai and Canada has changed.

Both countries have stronger teams this year and are scoring significantly higher. Crimson Fox competed for Canada at the Mondial 2012 and was outscored by Fuzion at this year's national championships. The team's meet average at the USPA Nationals was lower due to numerous point deductions.

The new lineup of the Dubai Asaar Ladies has increased the distance to Canada and was even very close (149 - 145) to Dubai's Open Class team Asaar Black at the USPA Nationals. Coach Elena Chistova now has last year's team videographer Angelique Pierry in the active lineup, together with former SDC Furies member Malgorzata "Goszia" Cienkosz. The same three teams will meet each other again at the World Meet 2014 in Prostejov - then in the female 4way category...