posted Sep 29th, 2021 - Yesterday's update from Italy, with the results of this year's national outdoor championships, included a few names of 4-way competitors who have been regulars at international events over many years, as well. The same names initiated a closer look at the country's history in Formation Skydiving competition.

Livio Piccolo, Luca Marchioro (Amnesya) and Placido Udine (eX3MO) trained and competed with Italian teams who have won two of the country's three sets of FAI world meet medals. The NSL News have covered Livio Piccolo's and Luca Marchioro's bronze medals with Sinapsi PD in 2006 in several earlier stories, which were mostly related to their recent 4-way activities with Amnesya.

The NSL News reported after Sinapsi's 6th place at the FAI World Meet 2010 that Livio Piccolo and Luca Marchioro won their 10th Italian championship title together just a few weeks later. This month's next Italian 4-way gold medals with Amnesya must be their 11th time together.

However, their Sinapsi years and the FAI bronze medals in 2006, with Arianna de Benedetti and Pete Allum in the lineup, Luca Poretti on camera, have been well covered. It is not so well known that another recently active 4-way competitor was in the 8-way lineup that won the only 8-way medals for Italy in history. Placido Udine launched the Ex3mo 8-way team with members of the first eX3MO 4-way lineups at about the same time.

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FAI World Meet 1991			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	TAG Team	FR	17	18	15	16	18	16	18	15	15	23	171	17.1
2	DeLand	US	15	17	15	16	17	16	17	16	17	22	168	16.8
3	Italy Outcast	IT	13	15	13	13	15	14	13	14	15	21	146	14.6
4	Russia	RU	13	14	10	14	15	16	17	15	11	20	145	14.5
5	Daedalus	DE	14	14	13	12	13	12	11	12	13	18	132	13.2
6	Great Britain	UK	11	15	11	12	12	11	13	11	11	18	125	12.5
7	Switzerland	CH	11	13	12	10	13	13	13	7	14	17	123	12.3
8	Canada	CA	11	15	9	13	12	12	11	11	10	14	118	11.8
9	Austria	AT	11	14	11	11	13	12	11	11	10	-	104	11.6
10	Belgium	BE	9	9	11	13	13	12	13	11	12	-	103	11.4
11	Denmark	DK	11	13	9	8	11	13	11	12	12	-	100	11.1
12	Norway	NO	10	12	10	11	11	12	8	11	11	-	96	10.7
12	Australia	AU	11	13	9	12	12	11	11	9	8	-	96	10.7
14	Japan	JP	9	12	9	11	11	11	12	9	11	-	95	10.6
15	Finland	FI	10	12	10	11	9	11	10	11	10	-	94	10.4
16	Netherlands	NL	10	11	9	10	10	11	9	9	-	-	79	9.9
17	South Africa	ZA	11	10	10	14	13	6	8	6	-	-	78	9.8
18	China	CN	8	11	7	13	16	10	4	8	-	-	77	9.6
19	Sweden	SE	10	11	7	9	10	10	9	9	-	-	75	9.4
20	Spain	ES	9	10	9	6	9	9	8	8	-	-	68	8.5
21	Czekoslovakia	CZ	7	7	6	7	9	4	3	5	-	-	48	6.0
22	Ireland	IE	5	4	4	5	7	6	2	5	-	-	38	4.8
23	Poland	PL	5	3	5	4	2	6	3	2	-	-	30	3.8
24	Namibia	NA	1	3	1	4	5	5	5	4	-	-	28	3.5
25	Zimbabwe	ZW	2	4	3	4	1	4	5	4	-	-	27	3.4
26	Hungary	HU	4	1	3	4	3	1	2	4	-	-	22	2.8
27	Thailand	TH	1	3	1	1	1	1	2	3	-	-	13	1.6

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Placido Udine continued in eX3MO's 4-way lineup after winning the 8-way bronze medals in Maubeuge 2008, and he placed 2nd behind Amnesya at this year's national championship.

Original Sinapsi member Marco Arrigo was in the 8-way lineup of 2008, as well, after he had left the 4-way team at the end of the 2004 season and a 4th place with Sinapsi at the FAI World Meet 2004, one point behind the Russian Sky Panthers.

Marco Arrigo, Livio Piccolo and Luca Marchioro placed 6th (2001), 5th (2003) and 4th (2004) together, before Sinapsi's 2006 lineup finally won the bronze medals for Italy in Germany. Two years later, Marco Arrigo and Placido Udine followed up with 8-way bronze medals in Maubeuge, France.

Placido Udine switched from 8-way to 4-way and now tries to win back the Italian national 4-way title that he owned with eX3MO until 2017. Marco Arrigo eventually followed him and joined the eX3MO 4-way lineup in 2015. They competed together again, this time in 4-way at the world meet in Ottawa 2016.

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FAI World Meet 2006			1	2	3	4	5	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		N,20,16	K,J,C,G,3	D,19,B,6	L,14,10	F,17,M,2	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Fire	US	20	27	25	17	28	117	23.4
2	Gap Nice Icarius Autrement	FR	17	25	23	21	25	111	22.2
3	Sinapsi PD	IT	19	26	22	19	24	110	22.0
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	RU	21	23	23	17	25	109	21.8
5	Arcteryx	NO	18	25	21	17	24	105	21.0
6	Spa HayaBusa	BE	19	25	18	17	23	102	20.4
7	EADS	DE	17	23	20	16	18	94	18.8
8	Danez	DK	15	22	15	17	21	90	18.0
9	Spain	ES	16	18	17	14	19	84	16.8
9	Evolution	CA	15	14	19	14	22	84	16.8
11	Team 42	SE	13	20	17	14	17	81	16.2
11	British Army	UK	14	21	16	12	18	81	16.2
13	Voodoo	ZA	15	20	15	12	18	80	16.0
14	Punky Fish	NL	16	13	17	14	19	79	15.8
15	Airtite	AU	12	17	17	13	17	76	15.2
16	FILA	AT	13	16	16	12	17	74	14.8
17	Japan	JP	12	18	14	12	15	71	14.2
18	CTR Optimum	BR	13	14	14	12	17	70	14.0
19	Sky Service	CZ	12	16	13	11	14	66	13.2
20	Lithuania	LT	9	14	11	9	8	51	10.2
21	New Zealand	NZ	10	11	11	7	11	50	10.0
22	Kazakhstan	KZ	8	6	7	6	13	40	8.0
23	Estonia	EE	4	7	7	7	9	34	6.8
24	Ireland	IE	6	6	7	4	6	29	5.8
25	Cyprus	CY	3	7	7	5	4	26	5.2

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Marco Arrigo remained connected to 8-way training and competition, first mostly at indoor activities with Martial Ferre's Veloce 8-way projects. Then the German Airbus 8-way team hired him for the coaching job, and he is still working with the current lineup, in preparation for the next world meet in Eloy 2022.

The same four still active Italian competitors (Marco Arrigo, Livio Piccolo, Luca Marchioro, Placido Udine) are not the only Italian FAI world meet medal winners. It was the national 4-way team of 1991, Outcast, that won the first set of Formation Skydiving medals for Italy.

As in Rijeka 2004, it was a 1-point battle with Russia's 4-way team for the 3rd place in 1991, and Outcast, with Marina Ugolini, Gustavo Azzola, Alfio Fontana and Moreno Ruspi in the lineup, won the first FAI medals since 1985 for Italy.

It took 15 years until Sinapsi PD won the next 4-way medals in 2006, and Ex3mo followed up with the first 8-way medals in 2008. Another 13 years later, Livio Piccolo, Luca Marchioro and Placido Udine are still battling for Italy's 4-way top spot.

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FAI World Meet 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		17,P,4	H,13,7	6,M,1	9,22,C	16,J,8	K,F,G,18	O,Q,5,12	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	18	26	22	22	24	16	151	21.6
2	USA	US	18	18	26	21	22	19	16	140	20.0
3	Ex3mo	IT	20	16	22	17	18	18	15	126	18.0
4	EADS	DE	21	14	20	15	16	14	14	114	16.3
5	Connextion	UK	15	12	15	13	14	13	12	94	13.4
6	Belgium	BE	14	11	16	11	14	14	12	92	13.1
7	South Africa	ZA	14	9	16	12	13	11	-	75	12.5
8	Spain	ES	13	6	13	10	13	13	-	68	11.3
9	Australia	AU	11	5	10	9	9	7	-	51	8.5

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