posted May 10th, 2016 - The annual DFU Cup in Denmark is usually a warm-up competition for the domestic teams to get ready for the national championships. This year, it had more relevance than in the past.

Denmark's skydiving federation (DFU) has been considering sending a national team in 4-way Women to the World Championship of Formation Skydiving at the Mondial 2016 later this year, and the DFU Cup offered the opportunity for Danish teams to qualify for the event. The qualification standard for the female 4-way event was set at the 10-average benchmark, which turned out to be no serious obstacle for Valkyria.

Denmark has sent a 4-way Women team to an FAI world event only once so far, and the Danish Divas placed 6th at the Mondial Dubai 2012 with a 13.6 average. Valkyria now qualified for this year's world meet with an 11.1 average after the 10-round DFU Cup.

DFU Cup 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	4,10,8	N,21,D,M	16,22,E	1,Q,G,5	F,A,7,L	3,9,20	12,19,2	18,C,B,11	K,H,6,13	14,P,17	Total	Avg
1	Pangaea	12	11	13	14	24	14	11	11	12	15	137	13.7
2	Valkyria	9	12	11	9	17	11	10	11	11	10	111	11.1

Denmark's national 4-way Open Class team in Prostejov 2014, VAF Warriors, did not continue after missing the first cut at the 1st FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships, and the slot for this year's world meet has been open.

Pangaea has been challenging the VAF Warriors for a while and finished very close at last year's national championships. Pangaea came back this year with the same lineup and won the DFU Cup, followed by the 2nd place at the Nordic Indoor Championships 2016.

However, Denmark's skydiving federation has not given Pangaea the green light yet, even though the team was happy with the results, as team member Peter Stræde pointed out: "We did a new personal best with the 24 points on F-A-7-L. Last year at the nationals we did a similar jump (7-Q-B-L), and we scored 23 points on that one. Our training is paying off, but we are really looking forward to 150 more jumps, so we can show the team's full potential."

World Challenge 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Women		P,2,10	8,F,15	G,14,17	L,H,E,13	M,7,O,1	16,21,11	N,D,4,9	18,20,A	Q,19,3	C,K,B,22	Total	Avg
1	Volition	UK	19(-1)	18(-2)	21	29	29	19	29	21	21(-2)	26(-2)	232(-7)	23.2
2	Fuzion	CA	21	24	22	26	26(-2)	21	23(-4)	19(-3)	21(-1)	27	230(-10)	23.0
3	NFTO	UK	19	20	18	22	26	14	25	15	20	20	199	19.9
4	Les Stunts	BE	18	20	15	23	23	15	21	16	19	19	189	18.9
5	Valkyria	DK	15	15	13	18	20	13	17	12	15	17	155	15.5

Pangaea made the first team jump of the year in Round 1 of the DFU Cup, and training camps are planned for June, July, August and September.

The team's training plan is targeted at the Mondial 2016, which still has to be confirmed by the federation.

Pangaea, with coach Joey Jones, and Valkyria, with coach Pete Allum, have been working together closely this year and may both compete for Denmark at the Mondial 2016.

Valkyria met three of the direct opponents at the Mondial 2016 earlier at the World Challenge 2016.

Parachute Montreal Fuzion represents Canada, NFTO will compete for Great Britain, and Les Stunts is the Belgian national team in 4-way Women.

DFU Cup 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class	F,N,A	J,19	21,H	7,O	K,E,P	9,C	L,6	4,M	B,D,G	Q,2	Total	Avg
1	Team Job Rotation	9	4	7	9	5	11	7	8	8	9	77	7.7
2	Sky Riders	10	4	6	6	9	1	6	6	7	5	60	6.0
3	Vikings	1	3	6	5	4	3	2	4	2	2	32	3.2
4	Ali Og De 4 Rovere	0	0	2	4	2	3	2	4	4	5	26	2.6

The DFU Cup also included an A Class competition that Team Job Rotation won with a special strategy. All team members scrambled their slot slots prior to each round. The result was convincing.

Team Sky Riders came back from a 2.9 average at the national championships last year. Coaching, creeping and a tunnel camp now resulted in a 6.0 average in 2nd place with three highscores. The Sky Riders will challenge the A Class top spot even more after another upcoming tunnel camp and more outdoor training before the national

championships. The Vikings and Ali Og De 4 Rovere both completed their first competition.

This year's DFU Cup was held earlier than ever before, and the April weather may inspire the host to keep this date, as Peter Stræde summed it up: "The competition was held in absolutely amazing weather, and for the first time in as long as anyone can remember in skydiving, the optimistic outdoor competition in Danish weather was completed with 10 rounds."