posted Jan 25th, 2017 - The Sun Path Products NSL News is not done with the 2016 season yet. There are still a few teams that competed at the FAI Mondial 2016 and have not received the deserved attention yet.

The World Championship of Formation Skydiving is the most relevant competition in the sport, and it always allows a closer look at the history of the participating nations.

Only one team represents each country, and it is usually the currently strongest one after nationally defined qualification criteria.

The journey of the Irish team H4O to the FAI Mondial 2016 began at the World Challenge 2015 where the same lineup competed for the first time.

H4O attended four more meets before making the trip to Skydiving Chicago in September last year.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-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	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	24	25	35	26	19	22	27	39	23	22	262	26.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	23	31	26	18	22	27	40	23	23	254	25.4
3	France	FR	21	20	30	21	18	21	27	39	21	20	238	23.8
4	Black Cat	RU	22	20	30	24	17	21	24	33	21	19	231	23.1
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	21	20	30	24	17	20	23	36	17	18	226	22.6
6	Evolution	CA	20	18	29	24	16	18	23	32	18	16	214	21.4
7	Satori XL	UK	18	19	27	24	16	18	22	30	18	18	210	21.0
8	Airbus	DE	16	18	29	19	15	18	22	29	14	19	199	19.9
9	Savolo	ZA	15	15	25	19	14	15	16	28	17	15	179	17.9
10	Final Fire	AT	16	15	25	17	12	16	18	29	17	13	178	17.8
11	Ex3mo	IT	18	15	21	18	13	14	19	25	17	14	174	17.4
12	Rotor Out	AU	16	16	24	14	13	16	18	22	14	13	166	16.6
13	Pangaea	DK	15	16	24	19	11	13	16	25	12	13	164	16.4
14	China	CN	14	15	21	15	12	11	16	24	12	12	152	15.2
15	M4trix	NL	13	13	16	11	11	12	14	20	12	12	134	13.4
16	H4O	IE	13	13	17	8	9	12	9	15	10	10	116	11.6
17	MeXtreme	MX	8	8	13	8	9	9	9	12	8	7	91	9.1

Ireland did not have a team at the first world meet of the modern era of Formation Skydiving competition, which began with the current rules and format in Yugoslavia 1985.

After missing out in 1985 Ireland had the most consistent presence at world meets in the following decade (1987 - 1997). The next 12 years had Irish 4-way teams on the leaderboard only twice (2001, 2006) before Fast Air, a lineup of Ireland's Defence Forces, competed in Dubai 2012.

Fast Air became the first team from Ireland with a 2-digit meet average and still owns the national highscore at a world meet with the 12.1 average in Dubai. Fast Air also won the national championships in 2013 with a 12.6 average after seven rounds but did not come back for the 2014 world meet season.

Ireland did not have a team in Prostejov 2014, and H4O picked up the Irish ball again in 2015. The 10.0 average at the national championships was the outdoor starting point, and the 2016 season began with a promising performance at the World Challenge 2016, where the team finished significantly better than a year before.

H4O followed up even better at the UK Nationals 2016 where the Irishmen were standing at a 13.3 average after Round 4. H4O could not complete the meet across the Irish Sea; however, the road seemed to be clear to challenge Fast Air's 12.1 average at the FAI Mondial 2016.

Fast Air was eliminated in Dubai after Round 8, while H4O was allowed to complete all ten rounds in Ottawa after the latest FAI rule changes. The 11.6 average was still five points short of the 12.1 in Dubai. H4O or the next Irish national 4-way team has to take on the standing record average at the next world meet...