posted Aug 11th, 2021 - On Wednesday morning it was time for the 8-way and VFS teams to catch up with the five rounds, respectively four, that the 4-way Open Class and 4-way Women teams had completed on the first meet day of the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020. Unfortunately, the weather in Tanay has become the next obstacle for the event.

The Russian 4-way Open Class team VDV Airborne was eventually removed from the leaderboard, after a devastating run-up to the competition, including the plane crash and troubles with the corona virus situation. The 4-way Open Class field is now down to nine teams.

However, the competition is still as exciting as it was expected, and as it was after the start on Tuesday. Gary Smith was off on Wednesday morning, when the 8-way and 4-way VFS teams tried to add scoring numbers to the leaderboards. He resumed his part of the NSL TV Unfiltered show and recorded the latest footage from Tanay. Niklas Hemlin had to focus on his 8-way rounds with Airspeed XP8, which was challenging enough. France and the U.S. national 8-way team were tied in 1st place after the first two rounds on Tuesday.

The additional 8-way round on Wednesday morning split the tie on the top of the leaderboard. France delivered a flawless performance in Round 3 and turned the tie into a 3-point lead over Airspeed XP8. The U.S. team still won the third round over Tanay 8 and is now six points ahead of the Russian national team. The Qatar Falcons are still within striking distance of the bronze medal position, after giving up the second round to Russia by only one point.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		1,9,A		8,6,2		21,10,14		22,G,D,13		20,3,11		Total	Avg
1	France National 8-way	FR	20		23		25		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		68	22.7
2	Airspeed XP8	US	20		23		22	-1	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		65	21.7
3	Tanay 8	RU	18		21	-1	20		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		59	19.7
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	17		17		19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		53	17.7
5	Kazakhstan	KZ	5		9		6	-2	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		20	6.7
6	Belarus	BY	4	-1	6		4	-2	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		14	4.7

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Round 3 in 8-way Open: France - Airspeed XP8 - Tanay 8 - Qatar Falcons

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The 8-way teams in the chase will soon get their opportunity to make up as much ground as in no other round of the meet. The sequence for Round 5 (K,L,C,4) is the fastest one in the 8-way competition and may even have the potential for a world record.

The results of Round 4 could easily scramble the standings of the teams in the medal positions, and could also bring the Qatar Falcons much closer, depending on the outcome of this special round. The sequence has the potential to generate 30+ scores for just this one round. The current French 22.7 is the highest average number per round, and a 30+ can change a lot, depending on which team has a good round - or not.

Matt Davidson owns the standing 33-pointer world record. He was in the Golden Knights lineups of 1997 and 2018 who posted 33-pointers twice. He was hoping to win the world's 8-way title the 5th consecutive time, after four FAI gold medals with the Golden Knights between 2012 and 2018 and now with Airspeed XP8. Unfortunately, he is only on the bench in Tanay, as the NSL News reported on August 6th. Arizona Airspeed's Christopher Kuhlmann took his slot when Matt Davidson's recovery from the hip surgery had a setback. SDC Rhythm XP's Andrew Happick is actually the first alternate, and Matt Davidson can only watch the next assault on his world record number.

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NSL TV Unfiltered with Gary Smith

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Matt Davidson's Airspeed XP8 team mate Kirk Verner needs a good Round 5 to win his own duel for superior excellence in Formation Skydiving competition with Mathieu Bernier. The NSL News explained on April 22nd how long they have been competing with and against each other.

Mathieu Bernier was not even planning to compete at this world meet. He stepped in as an alternate when Clementine Praet did not continue in 8-way, and he eventually committed to the 8-way slot. Now he could win another 8-way title, ten years after his double-gold in Menzelinsk 2010, and he could secure the top spot with a world record scoring number in Round 5 - maybe tomorrow...

Tanay 8 have shown the potential for 30+ scores with the 29-pointer in Round 1 of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud, after two point deductions. The team's highest scores at a world meet were two 28-pointers in Australia 2018.

The defending VFS world champions of 2016 and 2018, SDC Core, had a very slow start and allowed Russia to take a 4-point lead in Round 1. It was corrected quickly with an 11-point advantage in Round 2, after six point deductions for the Russian team.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		1,9,A		8,6,2		21,10,14		22,G,D,13		20,3,11		Total	Avg
1	SDC Core	US	13	-4	24		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		37	18.5
2	Russia	RU	17	-1	13	-6	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		30	15.0
3	Italy	IT	9		11	-1	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		20	10.0
4	Belarus	BY	3	-4	7	-4	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		10	5.0

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