posted Jul 22nd, 2022 - The pursuit of two different sets of gold medals at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving has been a regular topic for the NSL News since Mathieu Bernier accomplished this for the first and only time in Menzelinsk 2010.

There have been several other teams and competitors who have won silver and bronze in 4-way and 8-way at the same world meet, while the double-gold is still the most special and unlikely goal. In fact, double-silver just happened again at the FAI Tanay Mondial last August, where three members of the French lineup in 4-way Women placed 2nd in 4-way and in 8-way.

It is also not unusual that 4-way teams win additional 8-way gold medals at national championships, where the stakes are lower compared to world meets. U.S. competitors Niklas Hemlin, Mikhail Markine and Christopher Kuhlmann just made this point at their last USPA Nationals.

It is very unusual though that the cross-connections between the events go beyond 4-way Open/Women and 8-way. It is another fact that it happened only once in the history of the sport when competitors switched back and forth between 4-way Open and 4-way VFS and won FAI bronze medals in both events. Double-gold between 4-way/8-way Open and 4-way VFS at a world meet seems to be unthinkable.

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British Indoor Nationals 2022		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	21,6,4	15,20,9	22,Q,3	12,N,L,D	16,19,C	A,13,P,11	17,E,F,10	G,K,18,H	B,8,5	1,O,J,7	Total	Avg
1	Chimera	21	25	24	22	23	25	29	28	24	30	251	25.1
2	Meraki	21	21	24	26	25	25	25	26	22	28	243	24.3
3	NFTO	21	19	21	22	23	25	26	25	22	25	229	22.9
4	Eros	18	18	19	19	20	21	22	22	17	25	201	20.1
5	Shaka	12	17	14	17	20	18	19	18	17	22	174	17.4
6	Alola	16	18	16	17	17	17	15	16	17	22	171	17.1
7	Volt4ge	13	11	11	12	13	11	17	10	12	17	127	12.7
8	Omni	10	10	10	11	8	9	11	10	12	15	106	10.6

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It was the Canadian national team Evolution in Prostejov 2014 who won two sets of bronze medals. The Lemay brothers Benoit, Martin and Vincent had Jean Christophe Ouimet in their VFS lineup, with Jean-Sebastien Vadeboncoeur on camera. Katie Woods competed with the three brothers in 4-way Open, with Jean Christophe Ouimet on camera.

The combination between 4-way/8-way Open and 4-way VFS is even unusual at national championships. The NSL News has no information in the records that any teams won any national medals with this combination, except for the Canadian FAI bronze medal winners, of course.

National championships are usually the qualification for FAI world meets or world cups, and it is difficult enough to win one event of this challenging combination. However, it turns into a different situation if there is no pressure of winning any medals or qualifying for an international FAI event. There are always competitors who are passionate enough to cross the lines of the different disciplines and enjoy additional competition atmosphere.

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FAI World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	SDC Core	US	26	26	20	27	17	19	19	23	21	19	217	21.7
2	Evolution	CA	22	17	15	23	15	15	13	20	19	17	176	17.6
3	Focus	AU	22	20	13	20	12	16	14	17	18	20	172	17.2
4	Vertical Flystation	RU	18	14	9	20	13	7	8	16	18	18	141	14.1
5	Blue Pelican	NO	17	13	13	15	10	11	13	15	16	13	136	13.6
6	Omni 99	UK	18	10	11	15	10	11	9	11	14	11	120	12.0
7	Kwansta Kwattro	SE	12	11	7	14	8	10	5	6	11	11	95	9.5
8	Wait For It	FI	7	5	4	5	2	2	4	5	8	7	49	4.9

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Omni at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018

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Pete Allum pointed out one of the examples when he discussed the results of the British Indoor Nationals 2022 with the NSL News on February 16th.

He gave special credit to the team that ended up at the bottom of the AAA Class leaderboard. Omni has been the British national team in 4-way VFS for several years and competed at two outdoor world meets, in Ottawa 2016 and in Australia 2018, then again at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019

Omni were back with the same lineup at the national indoor championships in February, and they surprised the audience and the AAA Class field with their participation in this category. They had no VFS opposition and decided to collect new experiences in 4-way Open.

Pete Allum said that they had 4-way jumpsuits with booties and were eventually impressed with the challenges of the different dive pool and belly-flying techniques. However, Pete Allum knows that VFS is a highly demanding 4-way event, and Omni deserved his credit for the indoor double-duties. Chimera (4-way Open), NFTO (4-way Women) and Omni (4-way VFS) will be on separate leaderboards again when they compete for Great Britain at the outdoor world meet in October.