posted Sep 24th, 2020 - Denmark and Norway both hosted 8-way competitions too at their national outdoor championships this year. Both Formation Skydiving competition events (4-way - 8-way) took place on the same weekend in Norway, while Denmark's 8-way teams had their own event a month after the 4-way competition.

The NSL News covered Norway's 4-way competition on August 4th, followed by the 4-way update from Denmark on August 21st. Once again, 4-way and 8-way competitor Kjetil Nordin connected both events by himself. He is eligible for medals in both countries with dual citizenship.

This year, he first won Norwegian 4-way and 8-way gold with Punky Fish and a Norgies'ish 8-way lineup before being back on Denmark's 4-way leaderboard four weeks later, with Subsonic in 3rd place. Then he guided the Danish 8-way team Simon to the gold medals on the September 12 weekend.

Winning medals in both countries is not new for Kjetil Nordin. He did the same in 2016 and 2018. It was 4-way and 8-way gold in Norway 2016, plus 4-way gold in Denmark with Pangaea. It was even better in 2018 when he won 4-way and 8-way gold in both countries. However, he lost the Norwegian 8-way gold medal due to doping violations.

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Norwegian Outdoor Nationals 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way	4,19	16,B,3	F,10,N	8,13	L,6,17	7,M,5	12,21	Total	Avg
1	Norgies'ish 8 Tønsberg FSK	8	9	8	6	5	7	1	44	6.3
2	Søndagsklubben Voss FSK	1	0	1	2	1	1	1	7	1.0
3	Restefest Nimbus	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	3	0.4

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Norgies'ish 8-way Round 2 at the Norwegian Outdoor Nationals 2020

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The winning 8-way team in Norway, Norgies'ish 8 Tønsberg FSK, consisted of the complete Punky Fish lineup and Humleswing, the team in 3rd place of the 4-way competition. Søndagsklubben in 2nd place was a pickup team from the hosting DZ, Skydive Voss. Restefest was an 8-way party for the remaining Formation Skydiving competitors at the event, with several team members who were at the same event last year.

Kjetil Nordin reported from Norway that the team's total of three points was actually "triple the points they got over the same amount of rounds last year". He also said that the Norwegian Outdoor Nationals finished a day early for the second year in a row and for the second time ever since Kjetil Nordin started competing in Norway.

The Danish 8-way championship is always a separate two-day weekend event, with a maximum of six rounds. This year, the weather did not allow the completion of the event. However, the host's Cessna Grand Caravan carries exactly 18 skydivers and could lift two teams per load. Despite the windy conditions, three rounds were completed on Saturday, plus an additional round on Sunday morning.

Kjetil Nordin is an 8-way expert as a long-time Veloce QRF member, and he was guiding his Danish team Simon to the 8-way gold medals. However, it was not an easy road to the 1st place after the four rounds.

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Danish Outdoor Nationals 2020		1	2	3	4	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way	M,E,A,17	7,O,D	F,C,16	G,19,14	Total	Avg
1	Simon	3	5	4	4	16	4.0
3	Eight DK	0	1	2	1	4	1.0
2	Enjoy	1	3	3	3	10	2.5
4	One Tonne Of Fun	1	1	1	1	4	1.0

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Kjetil Nordin said that he is mostly an 8-way indoor expert and does not know much about 8-way exits. This part of the 8-way competition was the most challenging one in Denmark and impacted on the Simon scores. He said that it was much easier in Norway where experienced 8-way competitors like Lise Nansen Aune and Pål Kolbenstvedt could manage the exits. 8-way exits from a Twin Otter are also a lot easier compared to a Cessna Caravan.

The winning 8-way in Denmark was the complete Subsonic lineup of the 4-way event, including Kjetil Nordin. The team name "Simon" was a tribute to Simon Markussen who Kjetil Nordin substituted for in both events. Simon Markussen is currently deployed with the Danish military. The other Simon members were former team mates of AirPlay, Phairplay and last years 8-way team Battery.

Kjetil Nordin also introduced the other participating Danish 8-way teams: "Enjoy 8-way has been the only team to attend and medal at all three nationals in 8-way that we've had in modern times. 8-way was reintroduced as a national championship discipline in Denmark in 2018, after it had been gone for many years. Even though Enjoy have attended and medaled every year, Hans Oksen and Peter Stræde have been the only two competitors who have won all three years. One more team have attended all three years though. Eight DK is a team built around an intermediate class team called Four DK. These guys are around 60 years of age and have attended no less than 10 national 4-way championships in a row. This year, they won their very first open class medal, after winning on tie-breaking rules over One Tonne of Fun. One Tonne of Fun does take the prize for the best name in the competition though."

The pursuit of Norwegian and Danish Formation Skydiving medals is not even over yet for Kjetil Nordin. Denmark has scheduled the first official national indoor championships this year at the end of October. It will be held in Berlin, Germany, after the first plans of holding the event in Sweden did not work out.