posted Sep 14th, 2014 - The Battle for USPA medals in the Intermediate Class of the USPA Nationals 2014 is as exciting as it has always been in the past years.

The winner seems to be settled, as Spaceland SPX5 is 12 points ahead of the next team eligible for USPA medals after Round 8. The Falcons from Qatar have won the last three rounds (6 - 7 - 8) and compete as a guest team. The same counts for Team Singularity.

The Falcons have just resumed their training after a longer break earlier this year. Both Qatar teams at the USPA Nationals are not the best teams that Qatar has to offer. They are the next generation after the national team, the Tigers, who did not compete at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014, due to the unexpected break from training and competition. The Qatar Tigers might have made it to the finals and the 6th place in Prostejov without missing the meet.

USPA Nationals 2014		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Intermediate	9,L,B	4,19	K,A,G,N	11,1	14,E,D	8,18	20,15	6,22	Total	Avg
1	Spaceland SPX5 (US)	17	10	16	12	12	9	11	10	97	12.1
2	Falcons B (QA)	16	10	15	9	10	11	12	13	96	12.0
3	Team Singularity (US)	14	10	15	9	11	9	10	10	88	11.0
4	Spaceland Tsunami (US)	16	9	12	10	10	8	9	11	85	10.6
4	Centerpoint (US)	15	7	15	9	10	9	10	10	85	10.6
4	Carolina Dynamic (US)	15	9	14	9	7	9	11	11	85	10.6
7	Synergy (US)	17	8	15	9	7	6	11	11	84	10.5
7	Ragnarok (US)	13	11	11	9	12	8	9	11	84	10.5

Team Singularity launched the 2014 season with an 8.5 average at the Valentine's Meet in February and followed up with a 10.8 average at the June meet of the Northern California Skydiving League. Now they are in 3rd place behind the Falcons after Round 8, but cannot win any USPA medals. The battle for the medal positions begins behind the Falcons and Singularity.

Five teams are in position to win the silver or bronze medals. Spaceland Tsunami will try to join Spaceland SPX5 on the podium, which teams from Texas have been very familiar with in the past years. It seems after Round 8 as if teams from Texas will win the gold medals in Advanced and Intermediate.

This is not a big surprise, as the performance level from Texas teams has been well known. Most of them attend the meets throughout the regular season, as SPX5 and Tsunami both have done this year. Another medal contender, Carolina Dynamic, has done the same in Carolina and was also expected to finish within medal range.