posted Oct 21st, 2016 - The very last major outdoor event of the 2016 season has begun at Skydive Arizona in Eloy, the USPA Nationals 2016. 4-way VFS is the first Formation Skydiving event on the agenda of the Sun Path Products NSL News with scores on the leaderboard. The teams in 4-way Open/Advanced/Intermediate have their first rounds scheduled for Monday.

It's the next serious showdown for Arizona Airspeed, six weeks after the confrontation with NMP PCH HayaBusa at the FAI Mondial 2016. Airspeed was the challenger of the reigning Belgian 4-way world champions at Skydive Chicago, while it is now time to defend the U.S. title against the domestic challenger, SDC Rhythm XP.

It is a very interesting situation before the start of the competition, as both teams have a year behind that brought changes and obstacles to both of them.

Shamrock Showdown 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	3,13,9	G,6,21	10,20,11	18,4,B	F,1,14	19,5,7	P,Q,16,A	C,15,M,12	J,L,K,2	E,O,22,17	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	23	24	19	22(-1)	24	24	29	25	29	24	243	24.3
4	SDC Rhythm XP	19	19	15	19	21	20	26(-2)	19	25	21	204	20.4

SDC Rhythm XP's new lineup, with former Carolina Turbo XP members Andrew Happick and Doug Barron, competed for the first time at the Shamrock Showdown 2016 where they also met Arizona Airspeed, the target of the near future.

Rhythm ended up miles behind the new Airspeed lineup with former Rhythm member Mikhail Markine in the point slot at Skydive DeLand in March. However, Rhythm was not in a hurry at the very beginning of a new team cycle, while Airspeed had to get ready for the world championships.

Rhythm's 2016 plans still changed when the U.S. team in 4-way Women, the Golden Knights, had to replace Angela Nichols and asked JaNette Lefkowitz to take the outside center slot in training and competition at the Mondial. Rhythm now had to share JaNette Lefkowitz with the Golden Knights, who also had to switch back and forth between her new inside center slot with Rhythm and outside center for the U.S. Army team.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		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
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	21(-1)	23	31	26	18	22(-1)	27	40(-1)	23	23	254	25.4
6	Golden Knights	US	21	21	30	20(-2)	17	19	24	35	20	17(-2)	224	22.4

It turned out very well for JaNette Lefkowitz and the Golden Knights who won the FAI gold medals for the U.S. delegation at the Mondial. The distance between Airspeed and the Golden Knights in Ottawa was also closer than the one between Rhythm and Airspeed at the Shamrock Showdown.

Airpeed's 2016 season became most challenging when Mikhail Markine broke a finger in August and could neither train for nor compete at the Mondial. Josh Hall, Airspeed 4-way world champion of 2012, helped out as the substitute in his point slot. However, he committed only until the completion of the Mondial, and Mikhail Markine would be back for the USPA Nationals.

This weekend, both teams are back in Eloy with the original 2016 lineups who competed at the Shamrock Showdown. Rhythm will surely not come back with a 20.4 average. The main question is how much closer the challenger has moved in the meantime, and what Airspeed will have to offer with Mikhail Markine back in the lineup and at Thomas Hughes' last major 4-way competition with Airspeed...