posted Sep 13th, 2019 - The German national team in 4-way Women at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 finished in 5th place at the German Outdoor Nationals last month.

The NSL News reported with an update on August 29th that Skynamite would have "serious work ahead" to master the qualification requirement that the German skydiving federation (DFV) had set for the 4-way Women event. Skynamite were standing at a 13.9 average after Round 7, shortly behind the required 14.1 average, which would qualify a German team for the next world meet in Tanay 2020.

Neither the winner in 4-way Open, Oceanside AtomiX, nor the Airbus Illertissen 8-way team had any troubles with finishing higher than the qualification benchmarks (17.5 - 12.9) at the national championship.

The sequences for the remaining three rounds did not make it easier for the German 4-way teams to improve their meet averages. However, Skynamite started the next day with the team's strongest performance of the competition in Round 8 and were back on track. It could have been the point deduction in the following Round 9 that kept the meet average at 14.0 after all ten rounds were completed.

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German Nationals 2019		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	E,G,M,2		B,4,1		9,K,L,O		13,15,14		22,16,3		21,6,D		5,J,12		P,17,7		10,H,C,11		8,F,19		Total	Avg
1	Oceanside AtomiX	26		19		26	-1	15	-1	15		17		19		24		18		16		195	19.5
2	Airbus	22		18	-1	28		15		14	-1	15	-2	18		21		16	-1	19		186	18.6
3	Dark Energy	18	-2	14		20		11		13		16		14		17		13		14		150	15.0
4	Bardarbunga 2.0	20		14		22		13		8	-5	11	-2	14		17		13		16		148	14.8
5	Skynamite	18		14		17		11		11		14		12	-1	17		12	-1	14		140	14.0
6	NeVa FSZ Saar	19		14		15	-2	10		11		13		13		15		11		14		135	13.5
7	HorschD FSZ Saar	18		12		14		10		10		12		10		9	-2	11		11		117	11.7
8	Join Up	13	-1	13		15	-1	11		7	-2	12		10	-1	14		10	-1	11		116	11.6
9	Airgrips	10	-1	9		13		5	-1	7		10		8		9	-1	10		9	-1	90	9.0
10	4Motion	10		9		13		8		7		8		3	-1	9		6	-1	9		82	8.2

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Skynamite had competed for Germany at the FAI World Meet 2018, where they finished with a 15.4 average. The lineup changed at the beginning of the 2019 season, when Sylvia Schlaphof replaced Carola Fietz. The new Skynamite lineup posted 21+ indoor averages twice, including the 21.0 at the FAI Indoor World Meet at Weembi Lille.

The 15.4 average at the world meet in Australia was showing that the 14.1 qualification mark should not be too big of an obstacle for the team, with three members of the 2018 lineup.

It was bad luck that kept the team from performing on their top level. Janine Tillenburg, the most experienced team member, had to cancel right before the German Nationals due to an injury.

Skynamite was fortunate to find an adequate substitute quickly. Airbus 8-way member Linda Koeb agreed to compete in 4-way, as well, and took the point slot.

Yasmin Schütte moved from point to Janine Tillenburg's outside center slot, and the new lineup completed 14 training jumps right before the start of the competition. Then they missed the qualification mark by one single point.

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FAI World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		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	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	29	-1	20		24		22		25		56	-1	23		18	-2	22		18	-1	257	25.7
2	NFTO	UK	20	-3	15		22	-1	19		18		38	-2	18		17		19		16		202	20.2
3	Team X	SE	17	-3	10	-3	18		16		14		36	-3	15	-3	13		18		12	-1	169	16.9
4	Phoenix XP	US	17	-2	12		17		14		15	-1	37		16	-1	12	-2	14	-2	13		167	16.7
4	Boomerang Betty	AU	19	-1	11	-1	18		14		15		32	-2	15		13		17		13		167	16.7
6	Fuzion Voltige	CA	17	-1	9	-2	18		14		15	-1	34	-2	14	-2	13	-2	14	-2	13		161	16.1
7	Skynamite	DE	19		12		16	-1	14		14	-1	27	-1	13	-3	12	-1	15		12	-1	154	15.4

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Skynamite will now travel to Arizona next month and compete at the FAI Outdoor World Cup at Skydive Arizona in Eloy, where they will try to get back to the 15+ level that they were on in Australia.

Janine Tillenburg will most likely be back in her slot to qualify for her third consecutive world meet. She was in the German 2016 lineup in 4-way Women with Skymix who finished with a 14.0 average at the FAI Mondial 2016 in Ottawa, Skydive Chicago. Oceanside AtomiX member Andrea Kleinschmidt, Airbus 4-way member Sarah Mertes and Stephanie Meyer completed the lineup, with AtomiX's Lars Naeve on camera.

Skynamite seem to be in a safe position and have a much better chance to beat their 14.0 average at the German Nationals.with the complete lineup and with all team members in their A-slots. They would also be prepared for a situation where Janine Tillenburg were not ready to compete again.

The Airbus 8-way team will make the same trip to Arizona, and Linda Koeb could help out again in the worst case. Skynamite is now trained with her in the point slot...