posted Nov 23rd, 2016 - The Sun Path Products NSL News covered the 15-year anniversary of the 4-way Women event at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving with the story on September 9th. The FAI Mondial 2016 was not only the 15-year anniversary for this particular event. There was also one competitor who competed at both world championships in 4-way Women.

The story on November 14th actually connected the dots, even though the topic was a different one and featured the battle for the bronze medals between Parachute Montreal Fuzion and NFTO.

Vana Parker was one of the very few 4-way competitors who attended both events in 2001 and 2016. Satori XL members John McIver and Pete Allum were two other competitors who did so and placed 4th in 4-way Open with Sebastian XL in 2001. Marco Arrigo finished 6th with Sinapsi PD in 2001 and competed with eX3mo at the FAI Mondial 2016. Olaf Biedermann and Göran Meyer both competed in 4-way Open for Germany (EADS - Airbus) at both events, too, and NMP PCH HayaBusa videographer Danny Jacobs was filming the Belgian national team in Empuriabrava 15 years ago.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
R.	4-way Women		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	21	21	30	20	17	19	24	35	20	17	224	22.4
2	French Girls	FR	21	18	30	23	17	18	24	34	18	14	217	21.7
3	NFTO	UK	17	15	21	19	13	16	18	26(-1)	17	13(-1)	175	17.5
4	Para. Montreal Fuzion	CA	18	15(-1)	19(-1)	16(-2)	14	16	17(-2)	25	17	14	171	17.1

However, Vana Parker was the only 4-way Women competitor at both events in 2001 and 2016. She had Vinca Cox, Glenda Miles and Ansa DuToit in the South African lineup, with Ronel Horne on camera, and South Africa finished in 6th place at the first 4-way Women event at an FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving.

It was the same event where her husband Dennis Parker competed with Voodoo for South Africa, together with Troy Marias, Bailey Edmunds and Colin Rothman. Des Cobban was filming Voodoo. The South African 4-way Open Class team won the internal competition (12.8 - 11.3) and Vana Parker was recruited by Voodoo soon after.

Two years later she competed for South Africa in 4-way Open at the FAI World Meet 2003 in Gap, with her husband Dennis Parker, Bailey Edmunds and Colin Rothman. Then she continued with Voodoo until the team eventually competed for Great Britain and won the UK Nationals 2014.

FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		8,19,24	A,L,22,H	E,10,D,11	21,6,4	B,18,C,14	G,5,20	2,1,16	M,K,12,9	15,23,P	O,17,Q,N	Total	Avg
1	Synchronicity	US	13	13	13	12	14	14	15	16	13	24	147	14.7
2	Norgie Girls	NO	13	15	15	13	13	12	13	15	13	22	144	14.4
3	4 Pleasure	SE	13	15	14	13	14	14	14	15	12	19	143	14.3
4	V-Max	UK	9	15	14	12	14	14	13	16	13	21	141	14.1
5	Russia	RU	11	11	12	12	9	12	12	13	11	12	115	11.5
6	South Africa	ZA	12	12	11	9	11	8	11	13	10	-	113	12.6
7	Italy	IT	10	10	11	9	5	11	11	9	11	-	87	9.7
8	Parat	DE	8	10	8	7	9	9	9	9	6	-	75	8.3
9	Spain	ES	4	7	6	4	8	6	4	9	5	-	53	5.9
10	Austria	AT	6	4	5	4	3	6	5	7	6	-	46	5.1

The UK Nationals 2014 was the last outdoor competition for Voodoo, while the team still attended several indoor meets until last year.

Vana Parker then joined NFTO at the beginning of the 2016 season, and the preparations for the FAI Mondial 2016 and the showdown for bronze medals with Fuzion began with the first meet at the Wind Games 2016. It became a short and successful competition season for NFTO with new member Vana Parker.

The Parkers were still connected in world meet competition at the FAI Mondial 2016, even though they did not compete together as they did for Voodoo. The situation was more similar to the FAI World Meet 2001 where they were at the same event in two different categories. This year, Dennis Parker had his own battle in 8-way with Microclim8 when the British national 8-way team had to fend off Germany's Airbus. Microclim8 did so by four points, and the Parkers were perfectly in synch. NFTO also finished four points ahead of Fuzion...

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(-1)	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