posted Aug 17th, 2016 - There are still other Formation Skydiving competitions to come before it will be time for the next world meet at the Mondial 2016. However, the Sun Path Products NSL News has been posting several previews leading into the most relevant competition in Formation Skydiving.

The latest step in the series of previews is the list of teams on the virgin leaderboard for the 4-way Open competition. There are still a few question marks behind teams that are not listed, as Brazil and Poland had originally planned to send their national 4-way Open Class teams.

The rankings on the event's leaderboard are according to the placing at the last world meet in Prostejov 2014. A total of 20 teams competed two years ago in the Czech Republic, while 18 teams are currently registered for the Mondial 2016 at Skydive Chicago.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
3	Evolution	CA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
4	France	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
5	Black Cat	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
6	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
7	Satori XL	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
8	Airbus	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
9	Rotor Out	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
10	Ex3mo	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
11	Pangaea	DK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
12	Savolo	ZA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
13	Final Fire	AT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
14	M4trix	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
15	China	CN	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
16	H4O	IE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
17	Ukraine	UA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0
18	MeXtreme	MX	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0	0.0

There have been many changes in the last two years. In fact, there is not one single team coming to the U.S.A. with the same lineup that competed in Prostejov 2014. There are five teams who still represent their countries (NMP PCH HayaBusa, Arizona Airspeed, Evolution, Rotor Out, Ex3mo, Savolo), however, all of them have different lineups.

France, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands are sending new national 4-way teams for the Open Class competition. Seven countries (United Arab Emirates, Finland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Sweden, Estonia and Hungary) will not be represented at Skydive Chicago after having a team in Prostejov 2014.

Qatar, China, Ireland, Ukraine and Mexico did not have teams at the 2014 world meet and are registered for the Mondial 2016.

FAI World Meet 2014			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		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
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	32	29	25	25	33	25	22	18	26	29	264	26.4
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	31	27	25	24	31	23	22	17	24	29	253	25.3
3	Evolution	CA	31	28	24	22	28	23	20	21	25	27	249	24.9
4	VoltR	FR	24	26	18	23	26	20	20	13	24	21	215	21.5
5	Barkli	RU	24	23	20	22	25	21	19	16	18	26	214	21.4
6	Dubai Asaar	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	IT	18	17	16	15	17	15	14	11	14	-	137	15.2
11	VAF Warriors	DK	15	17	14	15	17	14	13	11	-	-	116	14.5
12	Tigers	FI	13	16	16	17	12	13	11	12	-	-	110	13.8
12	Savolo	ZA	15	16	16	13	14	14	11	11	-	-	110	13.8
14	Sky Dragons	SI	15	14	13	13	15	12	11	9	-	-	102	12.8
15	Final Edition	AT	14	16	12	12	12	14	9	11	-	-	100	12.5
16	Magic 4	LT	14	11	14	13	15	12	12	8	-	-	99	12.4
17	eXact	SE	11	15	11	13	13	11	11	9	-	-	94	11.8
18	Cool Runnings	NL	13	14	13	9	10	9	10	9	-	-	87	10.9
19	Lupus	EE	9	11	11	13	12	9	10	9	-	-	84	10.5
20	Hungary	HU	9	9	10	12	13	8	8	7	-	-	76	9.5

All three 4-way Open medal winners of 2014 have new team members. Jeroen "Bob" Nollet will try to defend Roy Janssen's gold medal in the tail slot. Only Thomas Hughes and Thiago Gomes are back from Arizona Airspeed's 2014 lineup, and Airspeed does not even know exactly yet who will fill the point slot for injured Mikhail Markine.

Evolution could have a chance to catch up with Airspeed, however, Jean Christophe Ouimet has to replace Katie Woods successfully, and the Canadians are also medal contenders in 4-way VFS. Rotor Out won the Australian Nationals 2016 with two new members (Steve Smith, Richard Strickland) and Ex3mo has Marco Arrigo as a new team member. Savolo does not bring back Andre van Heerden this time; Debbie Lamsley has trained and competed with the South Africans.

The Top 10 spots could be shaken up significantly compared to Prostejov 2014, including the medal rankings, where several teams are chasing the bronze and maybe the silver medal positions. The Qatar Tigers are in, while the Dubai Asaar team (6th) is out. Russia, France, Great Britain, Germany and Denmark have stronger teams than in 2014. It will be an exciting 4-way Open Class competition in Ottawa...