posted Jun 27th, 2001 - Solly Williams was the 5th world-class competitor who provided his commentary of the FAI Word Meet 2001 for the NSL News. Carl-Erik Tuv had started with a preview in September 2000, followed by Craig Girard and his view in December and John Hoover just a few months before the competition in June 2001.

Shannon Har-Noy Pilcher then e-mailed updates from Spain during the competition to the NSL News and met for an interview back in DeLand. Solly Williams wrapped up the meet coverage with a summary on July 3rd. He was still in Spain and wrote the summary after the "dust had settled".

Only Carl-Erik Tuv and Craig Girard actually competed at the FAI World Meet 2001, and both won 4-way medals. John Hoover, Shannon Pilcher and Solly Williams would compete for the U.S. delegation later and win their own 4-way medals. However, Shannon Pilcher and Solly Williams were both in Spain in 2001 and were opposing each other as coaches.

Shannon Pilcher won the silver medals in 4-way Women with the Norwegian team TNT, while Solly Williams ended up in 4th place with the British team V-Max after a dramatic 10-round meet. Their future DeLand Majik team mate Joey Jones won the FAI gold medals at the first 4-way Women event coaching the U.S. team Synchronicity. Solly Williams was also coaching the DeLand Norgies.

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FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open - Top 10		8,19,24	A,L,22,H	E,10,D,11	21,6,4	B,18,C,14	G,5,20	2,1,16	M,K,12,9	15,23,P	O,17,Q,N	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	25	21	19	20	20	20	23	17	30	214	21.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	19	20	20	18	21	21	19	23	20	31	212	21.2
3	DeLand Norgies	NO	19	22	20	18	19	19	19	21	18	31	206	20.6
4	Sebastian XL	UK	17	22	20	17	18	19	19	21	18	28	199	19.9
5	Endeavour	CH	14	17	15	14	14	16	15	17	13	26	161	16.1
6	Sinapsi PD	IT	12	13	17	15	15	15	14	19	15	24	159	15.9
7	Germany	DE	13	13	15	15	16	15	14	18	13	-	132	14.7
8	Russia	RU	13	17	14	13	14	14	16	15	13	-	129	14.3
8	Belgium	BE	14	14	14	13	14	14	15	17	14	-	129	14.3
10	Japan	JP	14	14	15	14	16	13	11	17	12	-	126	14.0

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Solly Williams on the results of the World Meet 2001

"Hey there! It's been close to 40 hours since the dust settled at the world meet site. As expected, some major celebrating has been on the go, and in some camps hasn't stopped either.

"Let me take you back to Round 9 of the 4-way. France blazed the jump and where oh so close to 21. The Norgies had a mediocre 18 with the 19th on the edge. Was an okay jump, but once again no major fire. Airspeed, who where up six points at this time on the French, came out the gate stuck in the mud. It was a mirror-image jump for them due to the cheated Snowflake-Offset, and it wasn't working. Half way through, they miss-fired a Block 23, and on the finish, it looked to be a bust.

"The judges' score card allowed the error to go unpunished as the judges didn't align the penalties on the score sheet. Having said that, in my opinion it wasn't a bust and the score remained correct. France still picked up three points (20-17), but it would have made it a whole lot more interesting had the score sheet correlated. That meant going into round 10 with a 3-point lead over France and nine points over the Deland Norgies.

"The British 4-way was four behind Norway at this stage, which still meant they were a threat to Norway in the medal standings. They had a clean 28 in Round 10 to conclude what must have been the best performance of any of the top teams relative to the amount of training they did. Well done, guys. Ten great rounds.

"Norway posted a clean 31, which went on to be the best round as they where slightly ahead of France at the freeze frame, although they both scored 31. Airspeed had a safe 30, which is all they needed. All in all, the result was fair and true to form. Airspeed was the best 4-way team and didn't leave much doubt about that. France continues to 2003 and will have another go at it. Norway will decide after the world games in Japan. I think the same goes for Airspeed.

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FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		8,19,24	A,L,22,H	E,10,D,11	21,6,4	B,18,C,14	G,5,20	2,1,16	M,K,12,9	15,23,P	O,17,Q,N	Total	Avg
1	Synchronicity	US	13	13	13	12	14	14	15	16	13	24	147	14.7
2	TNT	NO	13	15	15	13	13	12	13	15	13	22	144	14.4
3	4 Pleasure	SE	13	15	14	13	14	14	14	15	12	19	143	14.3
4	V-Max	UK	9	15	14	12	14	14	13	16	13	21	141	14.1
5	Russia	RU	11	11	12	12	9	12	12	13	11	12	115	11.5
6	South Africa	ZA	12	12	11	9	11	8	11	13	10	16	113	11.3
7	Italy	IT	10	10	11	9	5	11	11	9	11	-	87	9.7
8	Parat	DE	8	10	8	7	9	9	9	9	6	-	75	8.3
9	Spain	ES	4	7	6	4	8	6	4	9	5	-	53	5.9
10	Austria	AT	6	4	5	4	3	6	5	7	6	-	46	5.1

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"The female 4-way finished in fine style. V-Max finished the meet well with a clean 21. This was a new team record, too. That meant the pressure was on for the remaining three teams to produce, or the medal standings could still change.

"Norway posted a clean 22, and that meant they were up for a medal. Next up was the U.S. team, and wow, did these girls rip one up. 24 - and that was now meaning that Sweden had to do a 22 to make a jump-off and 23 to win out right. The Swedes started well, but it was soon clear that this wasn't a 23. In fact, it ended up being a solid 21. That meant the Norwegian females had tied the Swedes and created a jump-off.

"Then came drama. On the second viewing the judges busted the Swedes, and that now meant the Swedes had gone from first to third in one jump. The U.S. team was hopping about as well as the Norwegian girls, and the Swedes where in shock. It was jubilation and sadness all in the same area. The Swedes had proved themselves to be the most consistent right up to Round 9. I felt sorry for them.

"As for V-max, we had made remarkable comeback from a poor Round 1. As I had mentioned, we funneled our very first exit of the meet and with the standard as high as it is today, it's hard to come back from that. All in all, it was one great competition and the overall reception to this new discipline is very positive. It's a keeper and in the future, we should expect open and female categories to the norm.

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FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		16,P,13	1,Q,O,5	B,K,6,8	15,9,19	21,12,20	L,7,G,H	J,F,M,C,22	3,18,17	E,11,A,14	4,D,2	Total	Avg
1	Russia	RU	19	15	18	17	17	21	22	22	19	23	193	19.3
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	17	17	17	19	23	21	21	19	19	192	19.2
3	France	FR	16	17	16	15	19	20	20	18	18	20	179	17.9
4	Australia	AU	14	13	13	12	9	15	15	15	11	13	130	13.0
5	Netherlands	NL	14	12	14	14	10	11	13	14	11	13	126	12.6
6	Germany	DE	13	9	11	12	12	11	14	12	11	12	117	11.7
7	Great Britain	UK	13	11	5	12	12	11	13	10	11	-	98	10.9
8	Spain	ES	12	11	11	11	7	10	12	11	11	-	96	10.7
9	Brazil	BR	10	8	9	8	7	5	8	8	4	-	67	7.4
10	Canada	CA	8	2	7	6	6	5	6	7	5	-	52	5.8

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"The 8-way had a Cinderella finish. Airspeed went into Round 10 with a 3-point lead. The round was going to be relatively fast and mirror-imaged for everyone. The Russians had just cut the lead down to three by having a great Round 9. They seemed to have found the right rhythm. They came out the door with a ballistic Snowflake-InOut, had a small glitch building the Hope Diamond, and there after ripped the round - and I mean ripped.

"23 was a good score and the pressure was on. The stage was set. The main hangar, where jumps were being viewed, was packed. Both Airspeed and the Russians where standing in the crowd. I noticed that most of the Airspeed guys had their jump suits still on. Perhaps they where thinking of a jump-off. They must have known the jump wasn't very good.

"They came out the door okay, but after ten points it was clear to see the jump was stuck in the mud. No major glitches, but just too cautious and lacking rhythm. By the time it got to around 15 points, the tension was mounting. The score was stuck on 19 and the freeze-frame had happened.

"There was a moment of silence as the shock and disbelief set in. Pal Bergan (Norway), Gary Smith and I grabbed the nearest Russian dude and gave him a congratulatory hug. He just could not believe it, and at that stage not many people could.

"Once the penny had dropped and the realization had set in, we went on to witness the most wonderful ten minutes I have ever witnessed in skydiving. There were tears of joy, elements of shock and disappointment, as well as the most wonderful sportsmanship I've seen in a long time, all mixed into the same magical moment.

"It didn't take long before the Russians where tossing people into the air, and that included Airspeed's Alan Metni who had helped them get the re-jump of Round 3. I get a cold shiver just thinking about it.

"It was a very moving experience, and I am very grateful to have been one of the people there to witness not only the history of the first U.S. loss in 8-way but also true spirit of sportsmanship achieved at this international competition.

"Russia are deserving champions and no one will dispute that. Till next world meet - where I hope to be representing the U.S.A. in 4-way, take care, Solly."

Solly Williams did not make it to the next world meet in 2003 with the U.S. delegation. However, he became a 4-way world champion a year later with DeLand Majik in Rijeka 2004.