posted Oct 10th, 2019 - The Wednesday competition at the FAI Outdoor World Cup was concluded after Round 5 in 8-way. The 4-way teams were released after their Round 6, and they will be called back to action on Thursday at noon.

The NSL News gave the 8-way teams special attention for many reasons. There is a very good chance that the world cup in Eloy might generate the highest total of the medal winners in the history of 8-way competition. Russia, France and United States are as close to each other after Round 5 as only once before in history, and the quality behind the three top teams is unprecedented, with 8-way teams as Arizona Airspeed and Qatar Falcons.

Six points separate Russia, France and United States after Round 5, and it could become even closer, as all three teams have shown their even potential by claiming highscores for single rounds.

The closest 8-way competition in history at a world meet so far happened in Croatia 2004, where the same three nations were separated by a total of only five points (172 - 169 - 167) after nine rounds. The order was different, and Arizona Airspeed won the gold medals. Round 10 could not be completed due to an approaching storm.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		B,P,C,18	9,15,16	K,11,19	E,F,7,5	A,J,21,12	6,4,10	17,Q,L,1	H,14,3	13,22,O	N,M,D,2	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	20	23	16	17	19	20	19	21	17	-	172	19.1
2	Maubeuge	FR	21	19	16	16	20	20	19	20	18	-	169	18.8
3	Evolution Pro	RU	18	20	17	16	18	19	20	20	19	-	167	18.6
4	Remscheid	DE	15	17	13	11	14	16	12	14	14	-	126	14.0
5	Ex3mo	IT	12	15	14	11	15	16	13	15	14	-	125	13.9
6	Australia	AU	10	12	9	9	9	9	10	11	9	-	88	9.8
7	South Africa	ZA	12	10	6	6	9	11	9	10	10	-	83	9.2
8	Austria	AT	10	10	9	9	8	10	9	9	8	-	82	9.1
9	Great Britain	UK	10	6	9	9	8	9	8	7	9	-	75	8.3
10	Japan	JP	9	6	9	6	5	9	7	5	7	-	63	6.3

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Two Airspeed members of 2004 are in the current lineup (Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard), while Kirk Verner is competing with Paraclete XP8 in Eloy. All three are once again meeting one of their 2004 opponents from Russia (Dmitry Samokhval) who won the bronze medals in Rijeka. Almost all other Russian Tanay members also battled with Airspeed's 8-way lineups between 1999 and 2003.

The French 8-way team won the silver medals in 2004 and could have been even younger than the current lineup. None of the 2004 members is training and competing with the French 8-way team any longer. However, Mathieu Bernier is now the national coach, and his predecessor Jeremie Rollett is coaching the Qatar Falcons. Both are doing their current jobs in Eloy this week.

The French 8-way team of 2004 followed up with 8-way gold medals in 2006 and 2008, and Mathieu Bernier won gold in 4-way and 8-way in 2010, as well.

Arizona Airspeed and Qatar Falcons behind the three top teams are lifting the quality of the 8-way field to the unprecedented quality level, and it will probably only get better. Round 6 is coming up this morning...

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FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		13,11,16		P,22,4		O,7,21		9,20,G		18,15,L		K,10,3		6,14,C		1,M,A,17		F,D,Q,8		2,5,E		B,N,12,H		Total	Avg
1	Tanay 8	RU	19		26		18		20		23		-		-		-		-		-		-		106	21.2
2	France	FR	20		24		18		19	-1	21		-		-		-		-		-		-		102	20.4
3	Paraclete XP8	US	21	-1	24	-1	16	-1	18		21		-		-		-		-		-		-		100	20.0
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	18		21		16		18		16	-3	-		-		-		-		-		-		89	17.8
5	Qatar Falcons	QA	16	-1	20	-1	14	-1	13	-3	17	-1	-		-		-		-		-		-		80	16.0
6	Airbus	DE	14	-1	15	-2	12		15		15		-		-		-		-		-		-		71	14.2
7	Monster	US	12		13	-1	10	-1	12		14		-		-		-		-		-		-		61	12.2
8	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	11		16		10		11		9	-3	-		-		-		-		-		-		57	11.4
9	Groomed	UK	7	-2	9		8	-1	9		8		-		-		-		-		-		-		41	8.2

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