posted Jan 29th, 2017 - The Sun Path Products NSL News mentioned on 21 December 2016 that Australia was bidding to host the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2018, and that a positive decision by the FAI/IPC in January "could motivate Australian Formation Skydiving competitors once again to pursue new performance levels and improve previous national records".

NMP PCH HayaBusa member David Grauwels told the Sun Path Products NSL News that the vote took place at the FAI/IPC plenary meeting on Saturday in Portugal, and Australia's bid won over the Russian one. The FAI World Meet 2018 will be hosted by the Australian skydiving federation at Gold Coast, a city in the Australian state of Queensland.

The event is scheduled for October 2018, and the Formation Skydiving teams will exit from Cessna Caravans.

David Grauwels, original HayaBusa member and the team's current inside center, is in Portugal in official mission. He is the IPC delegate for Belgium and cast the vote for his country's federation.

He added later that the plenary meeting also voted for Bahrain as the host of the FAI Indoor World Cup in October 2018 and for Norway hosting the European Indoor Championship in April 2018.

David Grauwels has a busy travel agenda this week. He returns to Belgium from the FAI meeting in Portugal on Monday. He meets with his team in Brussels and continues the travel right away heading back to the southern part of Europe. HayaBusa has scheduled indoor training in Empuriabrava, Spain, for Tuesday.

Round 1 of the Wind Games 2017 is scheduled for Friday, and the reigning indoor world champions have three days to get ready for the next showdown with Weembi Lille.

FAI World Meet 1999			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way		9,24,A	O,M,2,Q	14,P,11	19,3,15	N,8,12	C,1,E,20	K,23,17	B,16,21	L,22,J,7	G,5,6	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	23	18	19	18	24	21	21	21	20	208	20.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	24	19	16	17	26	19	19	20	19	202	20.2
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	21	23	16	17	16	23	20	19	20	16	191	19.1
4	Sebastian XL	UK	21	23	16	17	17	23	18	17	20	18	190	19.0
5	Russia	RU	22	20	13	16	16	17	18	17	18	15	172	17.2
6	Australia	AU	20	21	15	15	14	19	17	17	15	16	169	16.9
7	Daedalus	DE	18	18	13	13	14	18	15	14	16	16	155	15.5
8	Italy	IT	19	16	11	14	9	20	16	13	14	-	132	14.7
9	Japan	JP	15	18	11	12	12	15	15	14	14	-	126	14.0
10	Spain	ES	12	18	12	13	13	15	11	15	16	-	125	13.9
11	Hungary	HU	15	18	13	11	12	15	14	12	11	-	121	13.4
12	Belgium	BE	15	17	10	13	11	14	12	12	15	-	119	13.2
13	Denmark	DK	14	16	10	11	12	17	12	13	13	-	118	13.1
14	J5	ZA	14	15	11	11	12	14	11	13	-	-	101	12.6
15	Switzerland	CH	9	14	11	10	11	13	13	14	-	-	95	11.9
16	Netherlands	NL	12	15	6	11	11	10	10	14	-	-	89	11.1
17	Monkey Circus	AT	13	7	9	11	10	15	9	12	-	-	86	10.8
18	New Zealand	NZ	12	11	6	7	9	11	10	9	-	-	75	9.4
19	Canada	CA	11	12	7	9	7	11	7	5	-	-	69	8.6
20	Israel	IL	10	13	8	4	9	11	6	7	-	-	68	8.5
21	Portugal	PT	10	10	6	5	8	8	8	8	-	-	63	7.9
22	Slovakia	SK	7	9	7	5	8	8	9	9	-	-	62	7.8
23	Thailand	TH	9	5	0	5	6	3	8	4	-	-	40	5.0
24	Zimbabwe	ZW	5	5	4	1	2	5	3	4	-	-	29	3.6
25	Cyprus	CY	5	5	2	2	2	6	3	0	-	-	25	3.1

Australia has been a consistent factor in the modern era of Formation Skydiving competition since 1985. The national 4-way and 8-way teams have attended each FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving, with one exception in Menzelinsk 2010, when Australia did not send any teams to Russia.

Australia had a slow start in 4-way Women and missed the first three world meets in 2001, 2003 and 2004. The first Australian all-female team competed in Gera 2006 (Germany), and the 4th place in Maubeuge 2008 (France) was the best placing so far.

The 4-way Open Class team of 1985 placed 4th, as well, which is still the best placing in this category. Australia's 8-way teams have four 4th places in their records. VFS teams from Australia joined the world meet competition in 2012, and a complete delegation with four national teams competed at the FAI Mondial 2016.

FAI World Meet 1999			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way		15,7,13	B,12,E,3	20,K,11	23,H,J	F,2,8	D,6,P,22	N,A,M,G,16	21,L,14	10,C,4	1,9,O	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	22	25	20	20	16	22	25	19	21	21	211	21.1
2	Russia	RU	20	23	20	23	14	19	26	19	22	23	209	20.9
3	Maubeuge	FR	15	21	22	23	13	21	26	19	20	20	200	20.0
4	Australia	AU	15	18	12	10	12	16	20	14	14	16	147	14.7
5	Japan	JP	12	12	11	11	11	12	14	13	10	13	119	11.9
6	Germany	DE	13	13	12	12	9	10	15	10	11	10	115	11.5
7	Great Britain	UK	11	10	10	9	9	10	14	12	10	-	95	10.6
8	Spain	ES	4	12	11	7	9	11	14	11	10	-	89	9.9
9	Belgium	BE	10	9	7	9	8	10	12	11	10	-	86	9.6
10	South Africa	ZA	7	7	10	9	5	12	9	10	11	-	80	8.9
11	Flying Dutchmen	NL	7	9	9	8	6	9	13	11	7	-	79	8.8
12	Austria	AT	7	7	5	6	5	7	9	10	-	-	56	7.0
13	Italy	IT	5	5	7	9	3	8	8	7	-	-	52	6.5

Results of Australia's 4-way Open Class teams at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

Australian teams have not won any Formation Skydiving medals yet. However, the national 4-way team finished only five points behind the bronze medal position in Yugoslavia 1985. The last 4th place in 8-way happened in Spain 2001. The three 8-way powerhouses (U.S.A. - France - Russia) were still far out of reach.

Australia has hosted one FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving so far. It took place in Corowa 1999. Teams from 25 nations competed in 4-way, and 13 teams visited Australia to compete in 8-way. The next world meet down-under will take place 18 years later.

The placing of the Australian teams in 4-way (6th) and 8-way (4th) on home turf were the best in the country's Formation Skydiving history, identical with the placing in Brazil 1987. The situation is still the same in 2018: "Australian Formation Skydiving competitors may once again to pursue new performance levels and improve previous national records..."