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Did You Know...

... that James "Bu" Klinge is not far behind Doug Barron and Andrew Happick?

USPA gold medals in 2002 and 2003
posted Jan 23rd, 2021 - The recent NSL News updates covered the few teams and competitors who have won USPA gold medals in 4-way Intermediate (AA) and 4-way Advanced (AAA) consecutively at the national championships. The series of articles began when Skydive Midwest NEXT visited Skydive Sebastian for an outdoor winter camp.

Team founder Megan George was in the NEXT lineups of 2015 and 2016 who accomplished the USPA double-gold, and she reminded the NSL News that VTSD/Carolina Turbo XP did the same in 2009/2010. Yesterdays follow-up story added the information and pointed out that current SDC Rhythm XP members Andrew Happick and Doug Barron have also won USPA 4-way Open Class gold medals.

They did not add the third set of USPA gold medals in consecutive years, which is probably an impossible task for any U.S. team starting in USPA's Intermediate Class competition.

The same storyline was still not completed. There were a few 4-way competitors who accomplished the same USPA double-gold in Intermediate and Advanced even earlier. However, the situation was different in 2002/2003, compared to Carolina Turbo XP and Skydive Midwest NEXT, who continued with the same teams and similar lineups after winning the USPA Intermediate Class.


USPA Nationals 2002
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Avg
Rank 4-way Intermediate Top 10 D,C,8 18,H,G P,4,E 9,1 22,13 19,N,Q 14,B,20 O,2,11 L,K,A,M 6,7 Total Avg
1 Juggernaut 14 15 15 15 10 17 12 13 16 14 141 14.1
2 Air Force Blue 15 13 14 13 8 15 10 12 13 13 126 12.6
3 Skydive.com Pickup 11 11 14 11 8 13 10 11 13 10 112 11.2
4 AerOhio Confluence 11 12 7 11 11 13 9 7 15 12 108 10.8
5 Molalla Reign 11 10 13 10 8 13 10 10 10 10 105 10.5
5 Air Force Silver 7 9 14 10 8 12 11 9 14 11 105 10.5
7 Ramming Speed 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 10 12 11 99 9.9
8 Loki 10 9 13 10 7 10 7 11 11 10 98 9.8
9 Elsinore Equinox 10 9 10 9 9 9 7 10 12 11 96 9.6
10 Suh Tao 9 12 9 11 6 11 6 7 13 10 94 9.4

Spaceland Inferno at the Advanced Class awards in 2003
Juggernaut, a 4-way team from Texas, won the Intermediate Class competition at the USPA Nationals 2002, after a 4th place in 2001. The 2002 event was the first time that the Intermediate Class teams completed ten rounds at USPA Nationals.

Juggernaut had placed 4th with a 12.5 average after six rounds in 2001, and the 2002 lineup (James Klinge, Jim Walker, David Keeton, David Miller, with Alan Levy on camera) won with a 14.2 average after ten rounds. Another year later, Juggernaut was back in the Advanced Class competition of the USPA Nationals 2002.

Juggernaut did not win Intermediate and Advanced Class gold medals consecutively, as the team ended up in 4th place in 2002, tied with two other teams. However, it was not the same lineup that competed at both events.

James Klinge and Jim Walker had not continued with Juggernaut. David Keeton and David Miller came back with two new members (Roland Hicks, Marcus Thornton) and once again with Alan Levy on camera. The new lineup ended up in 4th place.


USPA Nationals 2003
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Avg
Rank 4-way Advanced Top 10 8,A,Q,F 15,3,G 4,N,22 J,7,B,H O,13,17 16,K,1 21,D,L,14 6,5,2 12,P,11 10,19,18 Total Avg
1 Spaceland Inferno 17 14 14 23 13 14 16 13 12 11 147 14.7
2 Elsinore Adrenaline 17 11 13 22 14 12 16 13 13 12 143 14.3
3 Warp Factor 17 12 14 20 15 14 14 13 12 11 142 14.2
4 Juggernaut 16 12 12 21 15 10 13 13 11 11 134 13.4
4 Elsinore GT 17 10 12 21 14 13 13 12 12 10 134 13.4
4 Beez 16 10 12 21 13 11 14 14 12 11 134 13.4
7 Fastrax 16 9 12 21 13 12 13 13 14 9 132 13.2
8 Rave 15 11 12 20 13 12 13 12 12 11 131 13.1
8 Nexus 14 11 11 22 12 13 15 11 11 11 131 13.1
10 Mr. Pink 15 11 13 20 12 10 11 11 11 10 124 12.4

Defiance at the Open Class awards in 2019
James Klinge and Jim Walker had recruited their own new team after leaving Juggernaut. They had Dave Burton and Alex Pincus in their Spaceland Inferno lineup, with Clint Hillis on camera. Inferno won the Advanced Class in 2003, and James Klinge and Jim Walker became the first USPA competitors who won Intermediate and Advanced Class gold medals at two consecutive national championships.

James "Bu" Klinge has continued in the 4-way Open Class competition at USPA Nationals ever since. He is actually not very far behind Doug Barron's and Andrew Happick's USPA medal collection. He won 4-way Open Class bronze medals with Defiance at the USPA Nationals 2019 - 17 years after his first Intermediate Class gold medal with Juggernaut in 2002.

James Klinge could still match their record by joining one of the U.S. top teams and win gold in 4-way Open. He was back in 4-way action again last year and competed with Bullet at the 4-Way FS Skydiving Championships in Eloy last November.

Carolina Turbo XP is still the only U.S. 4-way team who accomplished the USPA double-gold with exactly the same lineup in two consecutive years.



Defiance at the USPA Nationals 2019 - Bullet at the 4-Way FS Skydiving Championships in Eloy
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