posted Jun 22nd, 2022 - The British national team in 4-way Open, Chimera, was a part of the recent NSL Live Talk with Arizona Airspeed's Niklas Hemlin. He has been coaching the team for a while, and Chimera seem to be on the way to become one of the few amateur teams in the world who may join the 20+ average club.

Chimera recently attended their first outdoor competition of the year, the June meet of the United Kingdom Skydiving League on their home turf in Langar. Chimera had won the British Indoor Nationals 2022 in February before transitioning fully to outdoor training and competition.

After the conversation with coach Niklas Hemlin, the NSL News contacted the team to set up a new NSL Live Talk with Chimera and hear from the team directly after posting their first outdoor scores and a 20.0 average after five rounds.

All Chimera members, including team videographer Pete Harries, live near Skydive Langar and meet regularly at the end of any day for a few training jumps. They had just landed after their 4th jump on Monday and gathered quickly at the dropzone for the outdoor NSL Live Talk.

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UKSL 2022 - June Meet		1	2	3	4	5	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	P,L,10,19	B,G,O,20	17,D,E,N	8,H,9	1,5,F	Total	Avg
1	Chimera	17	20	23	21	19	100	20.0
2	Vantage	11	14	14	9	11	59	11.8
3	Alpacalypse Now	9	7	8	9	7	40	8.0
Rank	AA Class	P,L,19	B,G,O,20	D,E,N,6	8,H,9	1,F,22	Total	Avg
1	Spread Eagles	8	10	8	7	1	34	6.8
2	The Real Kim Shady	7	8	5	5	4	29	5.8
Rank	A Class	P,L,19	B,G,O	D,E,N	8,H	F,2	Total	Avg
1	Winged Hussars	6	7	7	6	11	37	7.4
2	Breakfast @ Tiffanys	6	7	3	5	8	29	5.8
3	None of the Above	6	2	4	4	5	21	4.2
Rank	Rookie	P,L,C	B,G,O	D,E,N	H,Q,M	F,A,J	Total	Avg
1	Chaos Unit	7	6	5	8	6	32	6.4
2	RAFSPA Hurricane	3	5	3	3	6	20	4.0
3	Oh! It worked	0	1	0	3	0	4	0.8

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Chimera at the UKSL June Meet

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Niklas Hemlin had reported earlier that the five rounds at the UKSL June meet included a costly and time-consuming exit funnel in Round 3. Chimera provided the five meet videos of the competition and added the two extra rounds that they completed in training after the official conclusion of the event.

Exit and first page with sub-terminal conditions were topics of the conversation with Niklas Hemlin, and Chimera added their own thoughts to the insights. They said that they don't give the first page of each jump much more attention in training than all other components. The number of jumps from planes is the main factor for exit and sub-terminal training, plus the mental preparation.

Will Cooke, in the tail slot for Chimera since 2020, said that the first half of the complete recent competition draw, which the five completed rounds were based on, were probably the faster part of the ten rounds. It helped to get to the 20.0 average. However, the almost ten seconds of lost working time in Round 3 were on the other side of the equation.

Fact is that a 20+ average has been the winning average of British 4-way champions in the past. In fact, only Satori XL ever posted a higher British scoring number (21.3) at the when a Super Sequence in Round 3 boosted the averages.

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NSL Live Talk with Chimera at Skydive Langar

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British Outdoor Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class - Top 10	22,B,8	L,C,10,14	19,H,E,7	12,11,16	N,J,4,G	20,18,5	Q,O,A,15	P,1,13	3,9,6	D,F,21,2	Total	Avg
1	Satori XL	17	20	26	15	22	17	25	19	21	22	204	20.4
2	4mula	15	18	22	15	20	15	24	16	19	21	185	18.5
3	Vision 99	15	17	22	16	19	14	22	15	19	22	181	18.1
4	NFTO	15	16	19	14	20	14	21	17	17	21	174	17.4
4	Eclipse	15	17	19	13	22	14	20	15	18	21	174	17.4
6	Chimera	15	16	19	13	18	13	17	13	17	20	161	16.1
7	Phoenix	13	12	19	12	18	11	16	13	14	16	144	14.4
8	Antimatter	14	14	16	11	15	11	18	12	14	17	142	14.2
9	Eros	11	13	13	12	16	10	16	12	12	14	129	12.9
10	Unicornmagic Flytastic	10	12	15	9	15	10	16	12	13	15	127	12.7

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Chimera and NFTO both seem to have arrived at the top level of British scoring history. In fact, NFTO was already there in 2018, with exactly the same lineup. The British 4-way Women team won the British Outdoor Nationals with 20.6 and followed up with 20.2 and silver medals at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia.

Catherine Anderson then took a 3-year break from competition and came back as Catherine Curtis for the current lineup. Julia Swallow stepped back to become the team's alternate after the British Indoor Nationals 2022. Chimera members Laura Hampton, Sara Ashworth and James Woods are now in their 7th year of training and competing together.

Chimera members Laura Hampton, Sara Ashworth and James Woods are now in their 7th year of training and competing together. Will Cooke and James Woods started even earlier together, with Hyrrokkin in 2012. Chimera worked their way up from 16.1 and a 6th place in their first year (2016) to the expected 20+ outdoor average and the position of a British top contender this year.

Chimera made the first step by collecting the British indoor gold medals in February, where NFTO competed with their 2021 lineup. The upcoming battle with NFTO at the British outdoor championship could be similar to the jump-off and tie-breaking drama last year - only on a higher level...