posted Jun 11th, 2021 - The next update from Great Britain is only indirectly related to the restart of the United Kingdom Skydiving League that the NSL News covered yesterday, with the help of British Skydiving Judges Coordinator Lucy Westgarth.

The British national team in 4-way Open, Chimera, competed at the event to get some competition practice in the run-up to the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August. Chimera, NFTO (4-way Women) and Microclim8 (8-way Open) would compete for Great Britain in the three traditional Formation Skydiving events under regular circumstances, after winning their qualification status in 2019.

Unfortunately, the circumstances are still everything but normal, and the ongoing implications of the corona virus crisis have now caused the decision by the British skydiving federation (British Skydiving - formerly known as BPA) to cancel the participation of the British delegation at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020.

The official statement by British Skydiving includes information how it came to the decision. It is based on a recommendation from the British Elite Performance Committee (EPC), which is responsible for regional, national and international competitions. The EPC selects and manages the British delegation to international events and any UK-based international events.

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Participation of British 4-way Open Class teams at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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FAI World Meet 2010			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	FR	21	22	56	20	22	24	22	24	40	26	277	27.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	22	21	53	23	20	24	23	25	40	23	274	27.4
3	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	19	21	56	21	19	21	23	22	41	21	264	26.4
4	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	21	21	55	20	17	20	23	22	36	18	253	25.3
5	Evolution	CA	19	19	51	20	18	22	21	21	31	18	240	24.0
6	Sinapsi	IT	19	19	49	16	20	17	21	19	37	19	236	23.6
7	Paratec-Saar	DE	16	18	53	17	15	18	16	19	30	-	202	22.4
8	Satori	UK	18	18	47	16	17	18	17	18	29	-	198	22.0
9	Dynamic Fource	NL	17	18	44	16	16	15	16	18	26	-	186	20.7
10	Pro Team	FI	17	16	43	14	15	17	17	17	28	-	184	20.4
11	Bodyflight Voluntas	DK	17	15	37	16	15	18	16	18	-	-	152	19.0
12	Voodoo	UK	15	15	31	13	14	14	15	17	-	-	134	16.8
13	Bardagi	SE	12	13	35	12	14	12	14	16	-	-	128	16.0
14	X3M4S Elements	NO	14	11	30	14	13	15	13	16	-	-	126	15.8
15	China	CN	12	13	30	13	12	14	14	14	-	-	122	15.3
16	Atmosfera G4	PT	12	10	28	13	13	14	14	14	-	-	118	14.8
17	Sky Dragons	SI	12	12	21	12	12	11	13	13	-	-	106	13.3
18	Kazakhstan	KZ	10	7	17	9	10	11	10	11	-	-	85	10.6
19	Ukraine	UA	6	7	11	9	9	9	9	9	-	-	69	8.6

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Missing the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 will be the first time that the complete British delegation does not attend a World Championship of Formation Skydiving since 1985. Great Britain has an almost perfect record of participation and has missed only the 8-way competition in Menzelinsk 2010.

It is a very unfortunate coincidence that the 2010 event took place in Russia, as well, and the event had its own problems in a completely different way. 2010 was the year when several hundred wildfires across Russia started burning in late July and lasted until early September 2010.

The world meet took place at the beginning of August, and the fires were associated with record-high temperatures in Russia. The 2010 summer was the hottest recorded in Russian history. Russia had declared a state of emergency in seven regions, and 28 other regions were under a state of emergency. The combination of the smoke from the fires and the record-breaking heat wave were tangible in Menzelinsk, and the participation at the world meet was compromised.

However, the British national teams in 4-way Open (Satori) and 4-way Women (Team Bodyflight) still traveled to Menzelinsk and maintained the flawless participation record in their respective events.

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Participation of British 4-way Women teams at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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FAI World Meet 2010			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	Aerokart Deep Blue Maubeuge	FR	20	19	47	18	19	20	21	21	32	19	236	23.6
2	Team Bodyflight	UK	16	17	44	17	17	19	18	19	30	19	216	21.6
3	Spaceland Blue	US	17	14	38	15	16	15	17	15	29	12	188	18.8
4	ISB Air	DE	16	15	39	13	13	15	16	14	28	11	180	18.0
5	Polaris	NO	14	12	30	11	14	12	14	15	22	15	159	15.9
6	Prygalky	RU	13	10	21	13	13	12	10	13	17	12	134	13.4
7	Sweden	SE	9	7	20	9	11	8	11	11	16	-	102	11.3
8	China	CN	9	9	17	5	6	6	11	8	15	-	86	9.6

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The cancellation has probably the most unfortunate athletic impact on the British national team in 4-way Women, NFTO. This event has been the most successful one for the British Formation Skydiving delegation ever since it was officially added to FAI world championships in 2001. British 4-way Women teams have won the only FAI medals for the British FS delegations since 1985, including gold in 2006 and 2008.

In fact, British 4-way Women teams have placed outside of the medal rankings only at three out of ten events since 2001. NFTO did not even look at the lower medal rankings this year, as they have been ready to challenge the French national team in this event for the next set of gold medals for the British delegation. The situation was promising, as the French Weembi Girls had accepted double-duties for this world meet to win gold medals in 4-way Women and 8-way Open. NFTO were far behind France in Australia 2018, however, the French national team was well-trained and competed only in 4-way at that time.

The situation had changed dramatically a year later at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019, where the French 4-way Women team competed in both events for the first time. The difference between France and NFTO was now down to 16 points. Russia as a host for a world meet has more bad luck, as the wildfires of 2010 are now followed by the corona virus pandemic with a similar or even stronger impact.

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Participation of British 8-way Open teams at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985

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