posted Oct 7th, 2019 - The field of teams for the FAI Outdoor World Cup at Skydive Arizona is complete, and the competition draw will be added to the leaderboard later today. Opening ceremony and competition draw are scheduled for Monday afternoon, at the end of the official training day.

The number of 4-way Open Class teams may be reduced to 13, due to bad luck for the Adventure Flyers from Paraguay. Team member Leonardo Calvete injured an arm muscle severely during Block 16, and the competition is over for him before it began. The team is still trying to get IPC permission to jump with an alternate and as a guest team.

The NSL Power Rankings provide an overview of the battles that can be expected in Eloy. The re-match between SDC Rhythm XP and Arizona Airspeed takes place on the very top of the leaderboard, as NMP PCH HayaBusa is not attending this time. However, HayaBusa member Dennis Praet plans to visit for a few days and support his fiancee Clementine Le Bohec in the French 4-way Women and 8-way teams. He will soon be able to provide commentary from the observer's perspective.

Four teams might be in the race for the FAI bronze medals. The same number of teams could have a similar battle behind the bronze medal contenders. Chimera and Eros will have their own re-match after the 2-point difference at the national championship in August. eX3MO's competition experience could become a factor in the race for the 7th place. The youngest world cup competitor, Kalle Pohjola, will try to create a surprise with his father Kimmo Pohjola and Finland's Pro Team.

---

FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019 - NSL Power Rankings			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	SDC Rhythm XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Echochamber	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Airspeed Odyssey	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Defiance	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	eX3MO	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Chimera	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Eros	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Pro Team	FI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	Kinetix	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	China	CN	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	Pajama Pumas	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	Adventure Flyers	PY	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

---

NSL Reality TV is able to feature a very special conversation that took place when Airspeed Odyssey was done with the Sunday training, as well as French coaches Mathieu Bernier and Jeremie Rollett with their teams. They met outside of the Bent Prop cafe and had a few minutes of time for special memories.

Mathieu Bernier is still the "Formation Skydiving Unicorn", as Craig Girard put it. He meant that France's current national coach is still the only competitor who has won 4-way and 8-way gold medals at the same world meet, in Menzelinsk 2010. Jeremie Rollett, now Qatar Falcons' 8-way coach and Mathieu Bernier's predecessor as the French national coach, was his 4-way team mate in 2010 and supported his double gold duties.

Eliana Rodriguez is the only Formation Skydiving competitor in history who has won FAI gold medals in three different events (4-way Women in 2001, 8-way Open in 2004, 4-way Open in 2008). Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard tried to stop Mathieu Bernier from winning double-gold in 2010 with Airspeed Odyssey, and lost by three points in the very last round.

Together they had won their own 4-way gold medals with the same Odyssey lineup in Maubeuge 2008, after a 1-point thriller. The French 2008 opponents were Mathieu Bernier and Jeremie Rollett. It was a very special conversation between long-time friends and opponents. Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard will be back in competition action with Airspeed Odyssey tomorrow, and Mathieu Bernier is the French alternate in 4-way Open and 8-way...

---

---