posted Apr 11th, 2014 - Five teams from Ireland attended the World Challenge 2014, and it happened for the second time in the history of the event that one set of medals made the trip to the green island. Kinetix had won the A Class competition at the World Challenge 2011 before Trajectory now took the 3rd place in the Rookie Class.

The World Challenge 2014 turned out to be a great meet for the Irish teams, and none more than for Project 4way Rookie Class team Trajectory (Christine White, Keefe Meehan, Darren Murphy, Cia Cia NicFhionnain).

AAA Class competitor Ronan Whelan (Celtic Air) explained that Project 4way is a small program started by him in Ireland designed to help bring up the skill level of lower experienced jumpers through the format of 4way. In the process, participants can learn within a team environment and gain experience by competing at the World Challenge.

World Challenge 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie	C,A,B	G,P,J	N,Q,D	O,E,K	F,M,L	H,Q,P	G,J,K	E,N,B	D,F,M	O,L,C	Total	Avg
1	HF Chicks (CZ)	30	27	30	30	48	36	28	28	51	22	330	33.0
2	Panik (IT)	23	14	19	22	30	22	18	23	31	20	222	22.2
3	Trajectory (IE)	15	12	13	15	22	13	15	14	25	8	152	15.2
4	Smth Shorter Pls (UK)	6	3	8	9	13	6	8	7	17	9	86	8.6
5	Newtons Nightmare (UK)	6	9	7	6	11	9	9	11	11	6	85	8.5
6	April Fools (UK)	8	5	7	6	13	10	9	3	15	8	84	8.4
7	Back Chatt (UK)	8	5	3	6	8	10	7	9	12	7	75	7.5

The project is in its 4th year and has grown from strength to strength. Each year, the averages have grown, and none more so than for the Rookie Class teams. Four years ago, the Irish Rookie Class team broke the 8-point average and went to 11+ a year later. The Irish Rookie Class average was at a 13-average level in 2013, and Trajectory finished with a 15.2 average last week to bring home bronze medals to Ireland.

Trajectory has three team members with less than 100 jumps, and two members never saw a wind tunnel until four months before the World Challenge. The first indoor training was also the first 4way experience for the Trajectory members. Project leader Ronan Whelan said that he enjoyed watching the team fly with such composure and beyond expectations.

The Irish 4way Project also had three teams on the A Class leaderboard: Wind Shear, Tail Spin and Man Flew. Wind Shear (Meirbhan O Conaill, Cathy O’Brien, Jenny Porter, Ciaran Mc Cartney) competed in the Rookie Class last year and moved up to the A Class. Ronan Whelan said that the team was "over the moon" after scoring a 13.3 average in a very competitive category and after learning the A Class blocks in a limited amount of time.

World Challenge 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	2,21	G,H,Q	B,L,M	K,O,P	C,8	A,J,6	D,F,N	E,4	7,9	19,21	Total	Avg
9	Hard Corps (INT)	10	11	21	15	12	14	16	12	14	10	135	13.5
10	Wind Shear (IE)	9	15	19	18	7	11	20	12	13	9	133	13.3
10	AirRush (DK)	10	18	18	17	9	9	18	12	12	10	133	13.3
12	Satori Red (UK)	9	13	17	15	7	11	19	13	13	9	126	12.6
13	Bodyflight Black Majick (UK)	7	15	15	15	9	11	15	11	12	9	119	11.9
14	Marshmallows (IT)	8	11	16	15	10	11	15	9	13	8	116	11.6
15	Team Meteor (UK)	7	9	14	15	10	12	16	11	9	8	111	11.1
16	Jew Over Cuckoos Nest (UK)	8	10	15	10	9	12	14	10	11	9	108	10.8
17	Vortex (UK)	6	9	15	13	11	11	12	10	12	8	107	10.7
18	Tail Spin (IE)	7	9	12	12	8	11	14	9	11	6	99	9.9
19	Man Flew (IE)	8	5	12	11	6	10	9	7	11	7	86	8.6

Tail Spin (David Graham, Ben Connelly, Mark Dhlos, Stephen Ross) finished with a 9.9 average after a shaky start. The team had a couple of changes in the lineup from last year and were disrupted in the team training. However, "once they got through the first few rounds sorting some stuff out they consistently scored the same as the teams around them", Ronan Whelan commented.

Man Flew (Danny Wall, Tommy Butler, Brian Donnelly, Sam Del Greco) was the third Irish A Class team with an 8.6 average. Ronan Whelan explained their team story: "They were thrown in at the deep end a little. Three of the guys never really did 4way before and didn't have a year as rookies behind them or any competition experience. Manfully they went for it all guns blazing, and once they got over the jitters in the first rounds they started scoring very well. A little more time to work on the randoms and they would have been right there with Tail Spin."

Ronan Whelan said that learning, improving and gaining experience is what the project is about, along with "having great fun on the way as, well, only the Irish can".

World Challenge 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	17,18,19	5,16,6	4,N,13	P,F,12,M	J,D,10,K	G,3,O,C	H,22,14	20,2,8	1,21,11	15,7,L	Total	Avg
25	Anti Matter (UK)	13	14	15	19	16	20	12	13	15	17	154	15.4
25	Airplay (DK)	14	15	15	22	15	17	13	10	15	18	154	15.4
27	Festina Lente (UK)	13	15	14	22	17	18	14	10	13	17	153	15.3
27	Celtic Air (IE)	13	15	14	17	18	17	14	14	14	17	153	15.3
29	Lupus (EE)	14	14	15	21	16	19	12	14	13	14	152	15.2

He added credit for Bodyflight Isis member Sarah Smith who puts in a great amount of time with the Irish 4way project, and who deserves a lot of the credit for the great performances produced by the teams.

Last not least, Ronan Whelan's own team, Celtic Air (Ronan Whelan, Tony Higgins, Gavin Brookfield, Colum Mc Govern) scored a 15.2 average. He said that his team was happy with it, due to the tough competition draw. However, too many point deductions also did not allow Celtic Air to finish with a higher average. Gavin Brookfield was the newest Celtic Air member this year, who is the first competitor generated by Project 4way after progressing through the other categories until finally competing in the AAA Class. Ronan Whelan said that he was "flying brilliantly".

The Irish Project 4way continues throughout the whole 2014 season.