posted Jan 16th, 2018 - The NSL News update on 27 December 2017 pointed out that three NMP PCH HayaBusa members (Dennis Praet, David and Andy Grauwels) could re-write 4-way history after winning their third consecutive 4-way world championship title together this year in Australia.

This will be the unique achievement for a 3-way. The most successful 2-way will still be Philippe Schorno and Eric Fradet who won 4-way medals consecutively for France in 1987, 1989, 1991 and 1993.

The strong French 2-way connection of this time period was in fact the reason for the start of the Arizona Airspeed team franchise in 1994. The top competitors from the east and west coast in the United States were tired of competing against each other and losing to the French teams.

Dan BC and Jack Jefferies discussed the situation with Kirk Verner, who had been competing on both U.S. sides, and the result was the first and original Airspeed lineup with Jack Jefferies, Mark Kirkby, Kirk Verner and Dan BC. The same story concluded with the summary that three teams share the historic record of two consecutive gold medals with identical lineups: France in 1987/1989 and 1991/1993 and Arizona Airspeed's original lineup in 1995/1997.

FAI World Meet 2014			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		E,3,C,5	F,6,D,21	19,H,2	M,4,1	O,14,A,P	8,J,16	7,11,12	22,20,15	17,G,18	13,B,9	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	29	25	25	33	25	22	18	26	29	264	26.4
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	31	27	25	24	31	23	22	17	24	29	253	25.3
3	Evolution	CA	31	28	24	22	28	23	20	21	25	27	249	24.9
FAI World Meet 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	RealFly-Sion	FR	21	20	30	21	18	21	27	39	21	20	238	23.8

FAI/IPC medals at World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

The story was wrapped around the fact that the HayaBusa 3-way can win their third consecutive gold medals this year. However, the Belgian world champions would then also become the fourth team with two consecutive world championship titles for the same lineup. Dennis Praet, David and Andy Grauwels would win their third gold medals with the newest HayaBusa member Jeroen "Bob" Nollet, who collected his first one at the FAI Mondial 2016.

The same story did not point out how close Airspeed's original lineup actually was to the unprecedented triple-gold record. Jack Jefferies, Mark Kirkby, Kirk Verner and Dan BC added a new 2-year period to the team commitment after winning the second set of FAI gold medals in 1997.

They also added 8-way training and competition to the Airspeed agenda. Goal was obviously to win the third consecutive set of 4-way gold medals for Airspeed in Spain 2001 and bring the William H. Ottley Sword for 8-way Formation Skydiving Competition, also known as the Excalibur, to Eloy, as well.

The four original Airspeed members actually won their third consecutive FAI gold medals in Spain, while it was not in the same event. Airspeed won gold in 8-way and silver in 4-way.

FAI World Meet 1999			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		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

It was the new French 4-way team that kept Airspeed from winning the third time and taking both Excalibur swords back to the United States, where they had been since 1995.

France had a new makeover of the national 4-way team after the last 4-year period with two more gold medals for France in 1991 and 1993. Eric Fradet continued after his 4th world title, together with his team mate of the last four years, Jérôme David. They had Claude Tzifkansky and Paul Grisoni in the new lineup and lost to Airspeed in 1995.

Jérôme David then switched to the full-time position of the national coach and changed the selection procedures in France. Davide Moy, Thierry Boitieux and the Ferre brothers Martial and Marin, with Laurent Pechberty on camera, became the new national 4-way team and finished only four points behind Airspeed in their second year at the FAI World Meet 1997 in Turkey.

They were ready after two more years of only 4-way training, while Airspeed had to split 4-way and 8-way preparations.

It was still a close competition with a 6-point difference in 1999; however, Airspeed did not get to the third set of consecutive 4-way gold medals and did not come back as a 4-way team after Australia 1999. The historic record of three consecutive 4-way gold medals for the same lineup is still open for grabs, and NMP PCH HayaBusa would have the opportunity in 2020 - if they win this year in Australia...