posted Jul 19th, 2022 - It was an exciting perspective for the near 8-way future when Craig Girard joined the XP8 lineup after the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020, as the NSL News reported on February 14th.

Arizona Airspeed had decided to focus only on 4-way training and competition, and XP8 needed replacements for 8-way world champions Niklas Hemlin, Mikhail Markine and Christopher Kuhlmann. Craig Girard was one of them, and he joined the team together with Matt Davidson and Andrew Happick.

Craig Girard has a long history with the Russian 8-way teams as his opponents at world meets, which began with the Golden Knights in 1989. The NSL News story provided an overview of this very special 8-way relationship, which became even more interesting when the Russian 8-way team hired Craig Girard as their coach, and he spent a lot of time in Russia and Dubai for training camps on a regular basis between 2018 and 2021.

The NSL News covered Craig Girard's new coaching job in detail on 9 February 2018, and it became a very successful cooperation after one year of coaching. The Tanay 8-way team took the 1st place at the USPA Nationals 2019 and followed up with gold medals a month later at the FAI Outdoor World Cup.

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FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		13,11,16		P,22,4		O,7,21		9,20,G		18,15,L		K,10,3		6,14,C		1,M,A,17		F,D,Q,8		2,5,E		Total	Avg
1	Tanay 8	RU	19		26		18		20		23		21	-1	20		24		20		16		207	20.7
2	France	FR	20		24		18		19	-1	21		22	-1	19		23		19		17		202	20.2
3	Paraclete XP8	US	21	-1	24	-1	16	-1	18		21		20	-2	19		22	-1	19		18		198	19.8
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	18		21		16		18		16	-3	21	-1	17		17	-1	16		14	-1	174	17.4
5	Qatar Falcons	QA	16	-1	20	-1	14	-1	13	-3	17	-1	12	-5	15		19		15		14		155	15.5
6	Airbus	DE	14	-1	15		12		15		15	-1	15		12	-1	15		14	-1	12		139	13.9
7	Monster	US	12		13	-1	10	-1	12		14		13		12		15		11	-1	10		122	12.2
8	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	11		16		10		11		9	-3	13	-1	14		10	-1	13		11		118	11.8
9	Groomed	UK	7	-2	9		8	-1	9		10		7		8	-1	10		13		7		88	8.8

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Tanay 8 - XP8 at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019

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The Tanay 8-way team had taken the position of the top contender for the next world meet gold medals at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 with coach Craig Girard. The competition in August 2020 promised to feature a fierce 8-way battle, as Airspeed XP8 and France both had their own very strong 8-way lineups.

Then the corona virus crisis interfered with everything, and the world meet was eventually canceled and rescheduled for August 2021. The teams had another year to get ready for the same battle, and the Russian 8-way lineup did not change, while Craig Girard could not travel so easily any longer with the pandemic restrictions and limitations.

However, the world meet eventually took place in August last year, with low participation. The outcome is well known, as the four strongest 8-way teams in the world were still present and had their ultimate showdown in Tanay. The results were reversed between the U.S. team and Russia compared to the world cup in 2019.

Craig Girard did not have a working relationship any longer with the Russian 8-way team after the world meet last year, and he decided to join the new XP8 lineup when they needed three new members. Just the competition between the Tanay 8-way team and XP8 with their former coach Craig Girard alone would have created a very special and exciting situation, as the NSL News update on February 14th indicated.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		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		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	US	20		23		22	-1	23		31	-1	23		24		166	23.7
2	France National 8-way	FR	20		23		25		24		26	-1	25	-1	22	-1	165	23.6
3	Tanay 8	RU	18		21	-1	20		23		26		23		22		153	21.9
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	17		17		19		18		22		19	-1	19		131	18.7
5	Kazakhstan	KZ	5		9		6	-2	10		7	-1	12	-1	12		61	8.7
6	Belarus	BY	4	-1	6		4	-2	5	-2	7		8	-1	2	-1	36	5.1

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Airspeed XP8 - Tanay 8 at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August 2021

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This update was posted just ten days before the next world crisis had a strong impact, as well. The news media reported on February 24th that Russia had invaded Ukraine, and there would be consequences. FAI/ISC announced at the beginning of March that Russian teams would not be permitted to register for FAI events:

"FAI position on the conflict taking place in the Ukraine: The military conflict taking place in Ukraine is of grave international concern. We are all deeply saddened by the inevitable human cost of war and the humanitarian crises that will be created because of this conflict. The FAI's fundamental aim is to maintain the integrity and support the development of air sports across all nations in line with a set of values that nurture inclusion and transcend national differences. To maintain that aim under the circumstances created by the military conflict in the Ukraine, the FAI Executive Board has unanimously decided to implement the following extraordinary measures: To suspend the members of Russia and Belarus with immediate effect and therefore removing all rights as listed in FAI Statutes 2.4.2.1"

It was the end of Russian participation at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 in Charleroi, and nothing has changed ever since. The exciting 8-way competition between former coach Craig Girard and the same Russian 8-way team as in August 2021 will not take place in Eloy this year, and Craig Girard will most likely add the next FAI gold medal to his collection.