posted Aug 26th, 2018 - South Africa joined the international 4-way community at the FAI World Meet 1991, after missing the first three events with the new and current format, and made it quickly to the world's top level. It took only six years until DeLand Equanimity won FAI bronze medals for South Africa in 1997, with Gary Smith and Solly Williams in the lineup.

Colin Rothman then transitioned the South African national 4-way teams of the next decade with different lineups and team names to the Voodoo era and competed at the world meets until the FAI Mondial 2012 in Dubai. Voodoo continued in Great Britain after the last world meet for South Africa, and Savolo represented the country in 2014 and 2016.

Savolo was planning to compete again for South Africa this year in Australia after winning the national outdoor championships at the beginning of the 2018 season. in fact, Savolo was already registered for this year's world meet when some problems came up, and things did not work out as planned.

Eventually, Savolo will have to skip this year's world meet and possibly resume the international representation at the next world meet in Tanay, Russia, in 2020.

4-way teams from South Africa at FAI World Meets between 1985 and 2016

Savolo member Debbie Lamsley, who was in the South African lineup at the FAI Mondial 2016, had joined NFTO for the next two years, the British national team in 4-way Open, who also have former Voodoo member Vana Parker in the lineup. The NSL News reported the personnel change on 23 February 2017.

The recent story on 23 July 2018 then broke the news that Debbie Lamsley had left NFTO and Sian Stokes took the open slot.

Savolo's original members Amy Kirtland and Alex Jordaan had already "borrowed" Paul Marcellin and Colin Rothman from Jazz Republic to win the national championships this year, and Andre Van Heerden was supposed to be back in the lineup for the world meet in Australia.

He and Alex Jordaan live in the United States, and Andre Van Heerden has been training and competing with Spaceland Lite, as the NSL News reported on 14 March 2017. Alex Jordaan has his own additional team projects and is currently also a member of SCZ ZEUS.

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

When Debbie Lamsley became available this summer after leaving NFTO, Andre Van Heerden offered her and Savolo his South African slot in Australia, as he would have a very busy schedule with both teams.

Savolo discussed the situation and welcomed Debbie Lamsley back to the team. She was excited that she would still compete in Australia, even though it would not be for medals in 4-way Women with NFTO.

The problems came up when Savolo presented the new lineup to the South African Sports Skydivers Association. Based on the national rules and regulations, a team is permitted to change one member, and Debbie Lamsley was still eligible since she has not represented Great Britain yet in an FAI/IPC Category 1 event after the FAI Mondial 2016.

However, the South African federation subsequently notified Savolo that Debbie Lamsley was still not eligible due to another part in the South African rules and regulations: "Teams/Individuals must be fully paid up PASA (and SSA) members before the close of Official Registration for the National Championship in question." She had not paid her PASA membership fees at the time of the national championships and is not eligible to represent South Africa at a world championship.

South African Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	A,N,21,D	5,13,L	18,4,14	10,15,6	2,12,11	9,3,17	P,1,K,M	20,J,7	16,19,F	O,C,Q,22	Total	Avg
1	Savolo	18	16	14	11	11	15	22	16	16	16	155	15.5
2	Meraki	18	13	9	11	9	14	17	10	15	16	132	13.2
3	CIAD	10	8	7	6	7	9	11	9	9	11	87	8.7

Savolo still tried to get Andre Van Heerden back in the lineup for Australia. He gave it some thoughts, but it was eventually too late for him to change plans and schedule for the remainder of the year.

Savolo member Alex Jordaan said that his team had run out of viable options: "We had planned a very short training season with a single camp in Portugal after the USPA Nationals, training alongside HayaBusa, and then a few days training in Australia prior to the meet, which meant we could not effectively bring someone on that needed additional on-ramping time with Savolo."

Savolo was officially not eligible to compete for South Africa, and the slot in Australia was offered to and accepted by Meraki, who had placed 2nd at the national championships. Meraki consists of two married couples, including Bailey Edmunds who competed with Savolo at the FAI Mondial 2016.

Savolo plan to compete again with Debbie Lamsley at the national championship next year and possibly in 2020, as well. The FAI World Meet 2020 in Tanay, Russia, could become a comeback for Savolo at a world meet...