posted Oct 1st, 2014 - Dubai's team project in Formation Skydiving competition has now completed its 4th year after former Arizona Airspeed members Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard moved to the Arabian Emirates in 2011 to get the project on its way.

It was not an easy road for the coaches, even though the available resources allowed them to do many things that are out of reach for other teams. They have to recruit their competitors from a very small group of skydivers, and there are frequent changes in the lineups.

However, the project reached a peak point this year at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014 when the national team, currently Dubai Asaar Black, made the second cut and finished in 6th place after Round 10.

World Meet 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Class	E,3,C,5	F,6,D,21	19,H,2	M,4,1	O,14,A,P	8,J,16	7,11,12	22,20,15	17,G,18	13,B,9	Total	Avg
6	Dubai Asaar Black (AE)	18	20	17	17	20	14	15	13	17	20	171	17.1
7	Vision 99 (UK)	18	20	16	16	19	15	15	13	16	-	148	16.4
8	Paratec-Saar (DE)	19	23	18	14	22	16	15	13	7	-	147	16.3
9	Rotor Out (AU)	17	19	17	17	21	14	13	12	15	-	145	16.1
10	eX3MO 4 (IT)	18	17	16	15	17	15	14	11	14	-	137	15.2

Dubai's national 4-way team was not even close to the finals when the United Arab Emirates hosted the previous world meet two years ago, the Mondial 2012. Dubai Asaar Red was done after Round 8, missed the semifinals and finished in 16th place with a 15.8 average.

There is no doubt that Asaar Black benefitted from a smaller field this year in Prostejov. However, there was actually only one country that did not send a team with realistic chances to make the semifinals and the finals. Qatar's Tigers most likely would have taken the 6th slot in the finals. The other countries did not have or send national teams on a higher scoring level.

Dubai Assar Black had also bad and good luck at the same time, as coach Craig Girard had to fill a slot in the last minute. Craig Girard took the Center Inside slot when Tail Ali Al Neyadi had to rest with back problems. Abdulrahman Almamaari took the Tail slot, while Aziz Al Shaibani (Center Outside) and Khaled Al Marzooqui (Point), were in their usual positions. Iurri Railean, also new member of the 8-way lineup, was an camera.

Last but not least, Asaar Black also benefitted from a big accident of the German national team Paratec-Saar, who funneled the exit in Round 9 and made a mess of the semifinal jump. The Germans were six points ahead of Asaar Black after Round 8 and then fell to the 8th place.

Exits, brain locks, penalties and other 4-way obstacles are a part of the competition, and only the numbers on the scoreboard eventually count. Fact is that Dubai Asaar Black was in 6th place after Round 9 and added another 20-pointer to the team account in Round 10. The biggest success of a Dubai team in traditional Formation Skydiving competition at a world meet was complete.

For the future, it might be more challenging for Dubai's UAE national team to defend the 6th place successfully. However, there are two years to come, and if the scoring progression continues, the 20-point average level could be in reach and bring the next lineup into a promising position...