posted Jun 3rd, 2015 - Two recent Sun Path Products NSL News updates brought a new generation of 4-way competitors to the attention of the audience.

The story on May 19th covered the Aerokart Ak'demie project in France, and the story on May 21st introduced the Chuteless Devils from Canada.

The same stories mentioned that kids and teenagers have been a part of indoor 4-way Formation Skydiving competition for several years.

They have always been welcome by the hosts and caught special attention by other participants and by the media.

FAI's International Parachuting Commission (IPC) has now taken action on this topic, even though indoor 4-way competition does not really have much to do with parachuting ("Parachutes and pilot chutes are not permitted inside the flight chamber at any time").

Official sanctioning of indoor competition has been an IPC topic for a while, and this year's 65th Annual Meeting of the FAI International Parachuting Commission eventually decided to accept the bid of the Hurricane Factory in Prague, Czech Republic, to host the 1st FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships 2015, as the Sun Path Products NSL News reported on May 13th.

The indoor world meet includes a category that outdoor events cannot offer. There is a 4-way competition for juniors, which was also more clearly defined at the same meeting. The FAI Sporting Code defines a junior indoor competitor as a "person under the age of 17 or whose 17th birthday occurs during the calendar year in which the relevant competition takes place."

The IPC delegates in Bulgaria this year added to this definition the "upper age limit to be changed from 14 years to under the age of 17".

FAI Indoor World Cup 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		21,15,8	20,16,2	L,18,M,3	14,9,D	J,5,Q,10	22,F,C,O	N,7,H,K	P,17,B,A	19,E,11	4,12,6	Total	Avg
1	Aerokart Deep Blue	FR	20	19	23	26	26	26	29	37	22	19	247	24.7
2	Bad Boys	CZ	18	17	19	22	23	22	26	27	18	17	209	20.9
3	Monaco Vitalsea	MC	16	15	16	22	19	21	24	24	19	14	190	19.0
3	HF Chicks	CZ	17	14	17	21	19	17	27	24	19	15	190	19.0
5	Spaceland Lite	US	13	13	17	15	18	19	23	20	19	15	172	17.2
6	eXact	SE	15	15	17	20	13	21	19	20	16	13	169	16.9
7	Aerokart Akdemy 1	FR	12	10	14	16	12	13	17	11	11	12	128	12.8
8	Aerokart Akdemy 2	FR	8	13	11	8	10	12	15	11	10	9	107	10.7

The new junior FS and VFS categories will have their own leaderboards, as the 4-way Women even has had it since 2001. There will be a total of five 4-way leaderboards in Prague, not including 4-way Dynamic, three in FS (4-way Open, 4-way Women, 4-way Junior) and two in VFS (4-way Open, 4-way Junior).

The separate leaderboards for the juniors are new, even though the first official FAI event, the FAI World Cup of Indoor Skydiving, was held by iFLY Austin in November 2014.

The two Ak'demie junior teams from France competed at the event and finished at the bottom of the Open Class leaderboard, while the two teams in 4-way Women had their own leaderboard and sets of medals. The juniors at the indoor world meet at the Hurricane Factory will get their own medals, too - if they are old enough...