posted Dec 13th, 2018 - The recent 8-way record participation at the Weembinamic 2018 brought back the attention to the event where France did not even have a team this year, the 8-way competition at the FAI World Meet in Australia.

The Qatar Falcons, who finished on the top of the traditional leaderboard at the Weembinamic, had used the opportunity in Australia to win the first FAI medals in Formation Skydiving competition for their country.

There was not much competition for any of the medal positions in Australia without a French 8-way team. The Golden Knights were 15 points ahead of Russia's Tanay 8-way team. Tanay's distance to the Qatar Falcons was 39 points, and 18 points separated the bronze medal winner from the team in 4th place.

However, there was one fierce battle in the 8-way competition, which took place right behind the medal positions. Once again it was the British 8-way team MicroClim8 who had to work very hard to fend off the nearest opponent, who came from Australia this time.

FAI World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	24	21	18	24	19	29	21	18	17	33	224	22.4
2	Tanay	RU	21	21	17	22	20	28	16	18	18	28	209	20.9
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	15	18	14	21	16	14	14	23	170	17.0
4	MicroClim8	UK	17	15	12	14	15	21	15	12	13	18	152	15.2
5	JYR8	AU	14	14	13	17	11	20	14	14	12	21	150	15.0
6	Airbus	DE	13	15	9	15	11	16	12	12	10	16	129	12.9
7	Brazil	BR	11	10	9	12	9	12	9	10	9	16	107	10.7

MicroClim8 (Great Britain) and JYR8 (Australia) at the FAI World Meet 2018

MicroClim8 had finished right behind the Qatar Falcons at the FAI World Meet 2016, as well, and there was only a 6-point difference two years ago.

The Qatar Falcons have lifted their performance level significantly ever since and ended up in the bronze medal position without a French 8-way team. MicroClim8 moved up one ranking position, as well.

The challenge for the British 8-way team always came from behind at the last three world meets. The Dutch 8-way team M8trix finished only one point behind MicroClim8 in Prostejov 2014, and the NSL News followed the 4-point battle MicroClim8 and Germany's Airbus 8-way team very carefully in 2016.

MicroClim8 was obviously battle-tested after the two previous world meets, and they needed all the experiences to fend off a new challenger, the Australian home team JYR8. The Dutch and German 8-way teams did not get beyond the British 8-way wall, and Australia eventually ended up behind, as well.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-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	Golden Knights	US	31	25	26	22	20	22	19	26	24	24	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	20	25	18	16	19	17	23	19	20	199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23	19	25	17	14	16	16	21	20	19	190	19.0
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	20	15	7	10	13	16	15	15	146	14.6
5	Microclim8	UK	15	14	16	14	11	13	13	14	13	17	140	14.0
6	Airbus München	DE	16	15	17	11	11	13	12	14	12	15	136	13.6
7	Australia	AU	13	13	14	12	9	13	12	15	10	14	125	12.5
8	Divergence	CA	11	10	9	11	8	10	8	10	11	11	99	9.9
9	Brazil	BR	11	8	10	9	5	9	9	11	8	13	93	9.3

The NSL News had introduced the Australian team with the world meet preview on 30 July 2018. The Aussies had put together the strongest lineup that was available this year. Nine hours of indoor training and 150 training jumps should be enough to pursue mainly the national record average of 14.7 which was posted by the Australian national team at the FAI World Meet in Australia 1999.

This goal was accomplished with the 15.0 again on home turf this year, and it was almost enough to climb back up to the same 4th place as in 1999.

It turned out to be a 5th place only, as MicroClim8 once again lived up to the challenge and finished with their own new record average. Six members of the 2016 lineup and two new members managed to fend off the Aussies this time. Andy Pook, Martin Soulsby, Mark Whitehead and videographer Phil Hartree even brought the battle experiences of 2014 into the latest 8-way thriller.

Germany's new Airbus lineup was not able to keep up with the two well prepared teams, and the Netherlands did not have an 8-way team in Australia this year.

FAI World Meet 2014			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		E,3,C,5	F,G,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	Q,10,N,L	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	24	22	15	26	22	21	19	26	21	20	-	216	21.6
2	Barkli 8	RU	19	18	13	25	14	16	16	19	18	13	20	171	17.1
3	Venturi	FR	19	16	14	23	18	13	18	19	15	16	19	171	17.1
4	Microclim8	UK	14	14	11	15	12	13	12	15	12	13	-	131	13.1
5	M8Trix	NL	15	13	11	17	11	13	13	15	10	12	-	130	13.0
6	Australia 8	AU	12	13	11	18	11	12	12	12	10	12	-	123	12.3
7	Dubai Asaar 8	AE	11	9	7	13	4	10	9	8	11	-	-	82	9.1
8	Maximum Ride	CA	10	9	6	11	8	8	8	7	7	-	-	74	8.2