posted Sep 15th, 2016 - Two of the four Formation Skydiving events at the Mondial 2016 were completed on Wednesday. The final results in the medal rankings were not surprising; neither in 4-way VFS nor in 8-way, and the interesting battles took place behind the three podium positions.

France did not win gold for the first time since the VFS introduction in 2010, and Evolution sacrificed the bronze medals of 2014 in 4-way Open to turn VFS bronze into silver. France then took back the 8-way silver medal position from Russia.

The Golden Knights finished the 10-round meet with a new record average of 23.9 and missed the 24-level only by a point deduction in Round 10. Team captain Sean Sweeney said that the Golden Knights will continue in 8-way with two new members, as Kurt Isenbarger and Jesse Stahler will not come back with the next 8-way lineup.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	31	25	26(-1)	22	20	22	19	26	24	24	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22(-1)	20(-1)	25	18	16	19	17	23	19	20	199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23	19	25	17	14(-1)	16	16	21	20	19	190	19.0
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	20	15	7(-2)	10(-4)	13	16(-1)	15	15	146	14.6
5	Microclim8	UK	15	14(-1)	16(-1)	14	11	13	13	14(-1)	13	17	140	14.0
6	Airbus München	DE	16	15	17	11	11	13	12	14	12	15	136	13.6
7	Australia	AU	13	13	14(-1)	12	9(-1)	13	12	15	10	14	125	12.5
8	Divergence	CA	11	10(-1)	9(-2)	11	8	10	8(-1)	10	11	11	99	9.9
9	Brazil	BR	11	8(-1)	10	9	5(-2)	9	9	11	8	13	93	9.3

The closest 8-way competition took place behind the four well trained teams and between two "amateur teams". Microclim8 from Great Britain was well prepared, too, after approx. 200 training jumps, while Germany's Airbus 8-way lineup completed less than 20 jumps together.

Airbus also had to deal with the double duties in 4-way and 8-way, which were organized differently at this world meet. Airbus members said that the experience at the Mondial 2016 was not very motivating and encouraging to compete in two events at the same time. They said that it was exhausting to switch back and forth within very short time frames, even though there did not seem to be a need to do that.

More training and the challenging agenda for the Airbus members played out to the advantage of Microclim8. However, it was not only the better logistical situation that helped Microclim8. The British team also finished with the highest meet average (14.0) in UK 8-way history. Congratulations...