posted Aug 29th, 2017 - Another real 4-way drama unfolded last weekend at the Italian Nationals 2017 in Fano.

The NSL News covered the Italian Indoor Nationals 2017 with the story on 21 May 2017. Ninja 4 won the competition, while Amnesya outscored eX3MO and qualified for the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 in Montreal.

The stage was set for the Italian Outdoor Nationals 2017, where the winner could possibly qualify for the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia.

Reigning champion eX3MO has won the Italian 4-way title seven consecutive times and had two challengers this year with Amnesya and home team 6.1.0. with player coach Livio Piccolo who won the Italian silver medals last year.

The Italian 4-way champion came to Fano with a different lineup after the five rounds at the FAI World Cup 2017.

Federico Angelotti replaced Fabio Lorenzetti and joined his former Energy team mate Stefano Rossi. Energy had won the bronze medals at the Italian Nationals 2016 and did not continue.

Italian Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	B,D,15,P	N,Q,F,8	L,C,H,6	18,J,A,19	E,1,M,11	G,2,3	22,7,10	20,K,16	12,O,9	4,5,21	Total	Avg
1	Ex3mo	19	25	26	19	22	17	16	17	20	17	198	19.8
2	Amnesya	25	25	24	18	20	18	15	16	21	15	197	19.7
3	610	23	24	24	18	20	16	12	16	19	14	186	18.6
4	Stand By	15	18	16	11	14	12	11	10	12	11	130	13.0
5	Assouei	13	14	11	11	12	10	9	9	7	7	103	10.3

The event took place during three sunny days at Skydive Fano, and the outdoor showdown for the 2018 title began with a disastrous Round 1 for the defending champions.

eX3MO lost six points to Amnesya and started an uphill battle in 3rd place behind 6.1.0. The 4-way veterans caught up round by round before Amnesya won again in Round 6 and was still two points ahead.

Eventually eX3MO and Amnesya were tied in 1st place after Round 8 at the end of the first day, and the final two rounds on the second day of the meet would feature a most exciting race for the finish line.

6.1.0. kept up with the other two top contenders throughout the first five rounds and began to lose touch after Round 5. The last two rounds of the meet turned out to become a showdown between eX3MO and Amnesya.

Amnesya won Round 9 by a point, and there was more pressure on the defending champions in Round 10 than they have ever been facing in the past years at national championships.

The most experienced Italian 4-way team had to dig deep to still come out as the winner, and the 1-point victory was the closest call in recent Italian 4-way history.

Amnesya could not be too disappointed after an incredible and impressive 19.7 average which is significantly higher than the previous 15.1 record a year ago, as Amnesya point Chiara Brunetti explained:

"We had an incredible competition, and we are extremely proud of our first official outdoor average, with this lineup. Of course, it is again a silver medal with only one point difference from the gold, same as at the indoor nationals, and it is a bitter sweet taste.

However, competing head to head with more experienced teams, without losing the focus and exceeding our best in every jump, striving point by point, this has an incredible value for us.

We felt stronger, and we are always more aware that we need experience in outdoor competition like this one, in order to improve. Ex3mo won thanks to their huge outdoor experience, but it is clear to everybody what is the team to beat in the future...

We had a fantastic season and we want to say thank you to our amazing coach, David Grauwels, for being such an incredible guide and example for us, and to our special technical sponsors, that made this possible: Aerodyne, CYPRES, FLY-IN and Larsen&Brusgaard.

According to the participants, the organization of the event was outstanding, and once again Skydive Fano was able to prove itself as one of the best Italian drop zone."