posted May 8th, 2014 - It is nothing new that the female competitors in the United Kingdom have been playing a very strong role in 4way Formation Skydiving competition for many years. The scores on the combined leaderboard of the World Challenge 2014 provide more evidence that this has not changed.

There is even the potential for an unprecedented situation in the United Kingdom this year. Two female lineups may represent the country at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving this year, if Satori decides to stay home after winning the UK Nationals last year.

Bodyflight Isis is currently waiting for news from the British Parachute Association as to whether they will have the opportunity to compete for the United Kingdom in Prostejov. Kaizen is the national 4way team in the female category, and Isis placed 3rd at the UK Nationals 2013, where Satori won and guest team Voodoo placed 2nd.

UK 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	AAA Class	19,4,1	15,J,7	C,Q,17,12	L,13,10	9,G,20	H,11,2	K,8,21	P,6,M,14	N,E,5,16	O,F,A,22	Total	Avg
1	Satori (UK)	18	23	21	17	20	19	16	24	22	25	205	20.5
2	Voodoo (ZA)	16	20	20	15	19	17	17	21	20	24	189	18.9
3	Kaizen (UK)	15	20	18	12	19	17	17	20	19	22	179	17.9
4	Bodyflight Isis (UK)	14	19	14	14	19	17	15	20	17	25	174	17.4

The Bodyflight Isis lineup includes one of the most experienced and successful 4way competitors in the history of the female 4way category, Sarah Smith. She was an original Bodyflight Storm member. The UK team was formed early in 2007 with the aim of competing at the UK Nationals that year and qualify for the World Meet 2008 in France.

The reigning world champion in the female 4way category, Perris Airkix, was the defending champion, with a new lineup and a new name, Team Elan. Sarah Smith had Kate Stephens, Claire "Sparky" Scott and Hannah Betts in Bodyflight Storm's 2007 lineup, with Gary "Swoop" Wainwright on camera.

Storm won and went on to defend the UK gold medals at the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge, France. Back in the United Kingdom, Storm also defended the national 4way title successfully - over the first Satori lineup in 2nd place.

UK Nationals 2007		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	P,13,7	Q,20,O,16	J,D,22,F	14,E,H,4	G,C,3,L	11,1,15	18,M,19	8,2,K	6,17,B	12,9,A	Total	Avg
1	UK Bodyflight Storm	20	16	21	18	21	13	19	16	18	19	181	18.1
2	UK Team Elan	18	17	19	17	15	14	16	16	17	16	165	16.5
3	UK Aardvark Zulu	19	16	18	13	19	13	15	13	17	16	159	15.9

The original version of Storm was a AA Class team, sponsored by Bodyflight Bedford when the wind tunnel opened in 2006. Sarah Smith and Hannah Betts were in the first Storm lineup, and it gave them a taste of what could possibly come in the future. Storm won the AA Class competition at the UK Nationals 2006 by 19 points, with former Vmax member Kate Stephens as a last-minute substitute for an injured team member.

The first success showed that the less experienced team members had some potential, and "planning for world domination started right then", as Sarah Smith remembered. She said that in preparation for their first year in the AAA Class, she and Hannah Betts spent months planning and trying to find the financial backing. In January 2007, they had signed up their dream team mates, Kate Stephens, Claire Scott and videographer Gary Wainwright.

The secured financial support was enough to leave real jobs behind and train full time - a situation that was so far unheard of in UK skydiving. The Bodyflight Storm lineup lived the dream through 2007, training in Perris, California, with world class coach and former Airspeed member Dan BC.

World Challenge 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	T.	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	T.	Avg
11	Kaizen (UK)	19	21	18	28	24	27	19	18	19	22	215	21.5
16	Skydiva (UK)	17	20	19	27	25	24	18	17	15	18	200	20.0
17	Bodyflight Isis (UK)	19	19	18	28	23	21	15	16	17	22	198	19.8
18	Vision 99 (UK)	17	21	16	22	23	24	18	15	16	23	195	19.5
19	Raykipo (UK)	16	19	16	25	23	22	17	14	16	23	191	19.1
25	Eclipse (UK)	14	13	16	23	20	21	16	15	16	18	172	17.2
26	Team XX (UK)	15	16	14	23	19	21	15	14	15	19	171	17.1
30	Dynamite Wolf Squadron (UK)	15	16	16	20	21	16	15	15	16	15	165	16.5
34	Anti Matter (UK)	13	14	15	19	16	20	12	13	15	17	154	15.4
36	Festina Lente (UK)	13	15	14	22	17	18	14	10	13	17	153	15.3
39	SAVoA (UK)	11	15	13	22	19	17	12	11	9	15	144	14.4
41	Lowabusa (UK)	11	14	10	19	16	16	14	12	12	16	140	14.0
43	Pink Stingers (UK)	11	11	13	16	18	15	12	10	12	13	131	13.1
45	FPMafia Magic (UK)	12	11	11	16	15	15	12	11	12	13	128	12.8
47	Matrix 14 (UK)	9	11	9	12	11	11	10	9	11	12	105	10.5
48	Tenacity (UK)	9	10	9	9	11	12	11	7	9	10	97	9.7

After the journey from an AA Class team to winning gold medals at a world meet within two years, Sarah Smith formed the 3rd generation of Storm in 2009, a player-coach lineup with Laura McLelland, Lynne Murray and Julie Woodrow. This Storm lineup completed 300 jumps in 2009 and finished in 4th place of 49 teams at the UK Nationals. Laura McLelland and Lynne Murray both are now training and competing with Kaizen.

SonicNutz and Kaizen competed for the United Kingdom at the World Cup 2009, while Sarah Smith attended the meet in the Czech Republic with the player-coach 8way team XStormin8 that she had also founded in 2008. Her 8way team qualified for the World Cup 2009, which was a great opportunity for the team members to experience a world class event. Sarah Smith remembered that "the UK delegation made their usual splash at the event displaying flags – including the Fun Flag...!"

Claire Scott, Amanda Kemp, Liz Matthews and Tarn Hollis then placed 2nd behind Satori at the UK Nationals 2009 and qualified for the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia. However, Claire Scott was pregnant, and Sarah Smith filled her slot in "Team Bodyflight" for five months. She won a silver medal with a 21.6 average for UK's national team in 4way Women and set a new UK record for a single round with the 44-pointer in Russia.

World Meet 2010		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	10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	Aerokart Deep Blue (FR)	20	19	47	18	19	20	21	21	32	19	236	23.6
2	Team Bodyflight (UK)	16	17	44	17	17	19	18	19	30	19	216	21.6
3	Spaceland Blue (US)	17	14	38	15	16	15	17	15	29	12	188	18.8
4	ISB Air Remscheid (DE)	16	15	39	13	13	15	16	14	28	11	180	18.0
5	Polaris (NO)	14	12	30	11	14	12	14	15	22	15	159	15.9
6	Prygalky (RU)	13	10	21	13	13	12	10	13	17	12	134	13.4
7	Sweden (SE)	9	7	20	9	11	8	11	11	16	-	102	11.3
8	China (CH)	9	9	17	5	6	6	11	8	15	-	86	9.6

Sarah Smith had a new team in 2011, where she and Amanda Kemp were both player coaches for the identical twin sisters Rebecca and Victoria Bradley. This lineup competed at the World Cup 2011 in Saarlouis, Germany, and finished in 4th place. The new Bodyflight lineup also won bronze medals at the UK Nationals 2011 with a 14.6 average.

Sarah Smith then joined forces with Claire Scott, Liz Matthews and Julia Foxwell, with Dave Head on camera, and won the Dubai Cup 2011 in 4way Women after 20 training jumps together.

The 2012 season was another mixed year for Sarah Smith's player-coach team. The Bradley sisters decided to discontinue in the middle of the season, even though the team was qualified to compete for the United Kingdom at the Mondial Dubai 2012. Sarah Smith recruited Laura McLelland (Kaizen) and Helen Arnold (Sonic Nutz) at the last minute to compete with her and Sian Stokes in Dubai. Alan Thompson was on camera for UK's national team. Result was the 4th place in a 14-team field with a 15.3 average.

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
1	Deep Blue Defenders (FR)	18	28	19	16	18	19	21	19	30	19	207	20.7
2	Golden Knights (US)	19	27	21	15	18	19	21	17	26	18	201	20.1
3	Polaris (NO)	15	25	19	14	16	16	21	15	21	16	178	17.8
4	Bodyflight Langar (UK)	10	20	15	13	12	14	18	14	23	14	153	15.3
5	Sky & Sand (DE)	13	17	13	10	13	13	16	11	21	12	139	13.9
6	Danish Divas (DK)	10	16	14	10	13	12	16	13	19	13	136	13.6
7	Fire (SE)	10	16	14	12	12	14	16	11	17	-	122	13.6
8	Valkyries (AU)	12	16	14	12	10	13	14	11	19	-	121	13.4
8	China Women (CN)	9	17	13	8	12	14	15	12	21	-	121	13.4
10	Illusions (RU)	15	21	14	11	14	12	17	13	0	-	117	13.0
11	Fenix (BR)	9	14	14	9	9	10	16	12	-	-	93	11.6
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
14	New Zealand (NZ)	7	7	7	4	7	6	3	4	-	-	45	5.6

The 2013 season turned out to become a far more exciting and rewarding year for Sarah Smith. She launched the Bodyflight Isis team project late in 2012, with Anna Hicks, Lucy Boella and Sian Stokes, Nigel Holland on camera.

Despite financial limitations and UK weather conditions, the new team competed at the World Cup 2013 in Banja Luka and did well. Isis won bronze medals in the World Cup and silver in the European Cup with a 17.0 average. The team went on to compete at the UK Nationals one week later and finished with a 17.4 average.

Isis Point Anna Hicks said that her last season proved that a team has the ability to go from "zero to World Cup podium hero" in one year, making the point how well the player-coach formula with Sarah Smith worked for the team. Sarah Smith had brought the other three team members from previous averages between 11 and 15 to the 17.4 average at the UK Nationals and World Cup bronze medals within eight months. She is now working on new plans for the near future.
Click on the score for a round with a link to see the teams' videos

World Cup 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Rd. 11	T.	Avg
Rank	4way Women	O,4,H,3	9,17,P	L,1,G,12	7,10,21	16,E,A,15	8,2,B	18,5,Q	F,14,K,N	M,C,D,13	20,J,19	22,J,19	T.	Avg
1	Aerodyne French Girls (FR)	21	27	16(-2)	18	20(-1)	17	17(-2)	23	24(-1)	20	17	220	20.0
2	Golden Knights (US)	22	25	17(-2)	17	19(-1)	18	21	20(-3)	24(-1)	20	17	220	20.0
3	Bodyflight Isis (UK)	19	18	17	14(-1)	16(-1)	16	16	17	21	16	-	170	17.0
4	Kaizen (UK)	16(-1)	21	14(-1)	16	15(-2)	14	15	18	19	15	-	163	16.3