posted Dec 21st, 2016 - Australia is one of the few countries that have sent 8-way teams to each FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving since 1985, except for the world meet in Menzelinsk 2010, which is in the records with the lowest participation in 8-way history.

Only the three 8-way powerhouses (U.S.A. - France - Russia) had their trained teams in Menzelinsk and gave each other a good battle for the medals.

Norway had a pickup team in 8-way, as well as the team from Kazakhstan, which was recruited in the last minute.

Australia is one of only a few other nations that have attended all other world meets, which included the one home turf in 1999.

The world meet in Corowa 1999 was also the most successful one for Australian 8-way teams.

The 14.7 average of 1999 is still the highest one in Australian 8-way history, and it was rewarded with the 4th place.

Australia also placed 4th at three other world meets (1987, 1995, 2001) and the time period around the 1999 event on home turf was the strongest one since 1985.

The performance and scoring level decreased year by year after that, and it was at the lowest point since 1993 before Australia skipped the 8-way competition in Menzelinsk 2010.

The progression curve resumed to move in the other direction when Australia came back with a new 8-way team to the Mondial Dubai 2012.

The increasing progression has continued ever since, and the Aussies might be heading towards a similar situation as in 1999.

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	22	20	22	19	26	24	24	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	20	25	18	16	19	17	23	19	20	199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23	19	25	17	14	16	16	21	20	19	190	19.0
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	20	15	7	10	13	16	15	15	146	14.6
5	Microclim8	UK	15	14	16	14	11	13	13	14	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	12	9	13	12	15	10	14	125	12.5
8	Divergence	CA	11	10	9	11	8	10	8	10	11	11	99	9.9
9	Brazil	BR	11	8	10	9	5	9	9	11	8	13	93	9.3

Australia is bidding to host the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2018, and a positive decision by the FAI/IPC in January could motivate the Australian Formation Skydiving competitors once again to pursue new performance levels and improve previous national records.

The 4th place will be difficult to reach in two years, as the Qatar Falcons have been picking up the speed and have no reason to slow down.

Coach Gary Smith confirmed the 8-way plans for 2017, which include the first outdoor competition at the Shamrock Showdown in March.

However, the 5th place could be a realistic goal in 8-way, and the highest Australian 8-way average of 14.7 (1999) seems to be in reach, as well.

Scores and leaderboard of the FAI Mondial 2016 are showing that the Aussies were close enough to Airbus (Germany) and Microclim8 (Great Britain) for a serious challenge in two years...