posted Nov 4th, 2022 - The 8-way previews of the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022 indicated clearly that the gold and silver medals would be set in stone before the competition even began. There was neither serious opposition expected for Paraclete XP8 nor for Qatar Falcons in their top spots of the 8-way leaderboard. XP8 eventually finished 41 points ahead of Falcons, who themselves created a 31-point distance to the team in 3rd place.

However, the NSL Power Rankings expected a battle for the bronze medals in 8-way between Great Britain (MicroClim8), Germany (Airbus) and France (Mojo). It turned out to be a competition between the same three teams for the 3rd place, which would also mean the first set of FAI medals for the British and the German Formation Skydiving delegations in history if MicroClim8 or Airbus would win this 3-team battle.

The same three teams were surely closer to each other than XP8, Falcons and Airbus in 3rd place. There was still a 26-point difference between Airbus and Mojo, 14 points between the new German bronze medalists and MicroClim8. Only once the German bronze medals seemed to be in jeopardy, after the level trouble in Round 4 and the loss of seven points in just one round.

Airbus recovered perfectly from the Round 4 disaster and continued extending the lead in the remaining six rounds for the 14-point advantage over MicroClim8 and the first FAI bronze medals at an outdoor world meet in the Formation Skydiving history since 1985.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	NSL Power Rankings 8-way Open		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Mojo Annecy-Clermont	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	MicroClim8	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Airbus	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Medal-winning countries in Formation Skydiving 8-way competition since 1985

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The British MicroClim8 had won the previous two world meet duels with Airbus for the slot behind the medal positions and the 8-way powerhouses (United States, France, Russia, Qatar), as the NSL News reported on October 20th. MicroClim8 had a new plan for the third confrontation, which included 200 training jumps and ten hours of tunnel time with the 2022 lineup.

MicroClim8 was then facing several obstacles throughout the 2022 training season, which began when Ane Brentford had to withdraw just before the first indoor training. French coach Erwan Pouliquen filled the slot at that time, and before MicroClim8 2019 member Travis Woods stepped in. He and MicroClim8 member Matt Cumming were also 4-way team mates with Eros this year.

Travis Woods could not commit to all the indoor training, and MicroClim8 continued to use substitutes for the slot. The next obstacle occurred when returning member Travis Woods was injured running an obstacle course in April, and MicroClim8 was once again short one team member. Ian "Milko" Hodgkinson became the next new MicroClim8 member to replace Travis Woods. He could not commit to the first scheduled training camp at Paraclete XP, and Golden Knights 8-way world champion Jennifer Davidson filled in at the point slot.

It was still not the end of MicroClim8's obstacle story, as 2019 member Maria Russell got injured during the training week at Paraclete XP. After returning from North Carolina, one of the longest-standing MicroClim8 members, Dennis Parker, offered his help. He was in the 8-way lineups of 2016 - 2018 and had the experiences of two world meets with the British 8-way team, including the two duels with Airbus. He was actually in the MicroClim8 lineup who qualified for the world meet at the British Outdoor Nationals of 2021.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		20,16,B		P,D,21,13		17,K,11		E,A,19,22		2,9,M		C,14,F,12		3,6,18		4,10,1		8,Q,O,H		5,7,J		Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	25	-1	20		20	-1	18	-1	18		19	-1	23		26	-1	16	-2	20	-2	205	20.5
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	21	-1	14	-2	16	-1	17		16		15	-1	19	-1	20	-1	14	-1	12	-4	164	16.4
3	Airbus	DE	18		14		14		13		4	-1	12	-2	16		16		12		14		133	13.3
4	MicroClim8	UK	16		9	-2	12		10		11	-1	7	-3	15		16		11		12	-1	119	11.9
5	Mojo Annecy-Clermont	FR	15		10		11		10		11		10	-1	8	-5	13		9		10		107	10.7

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Airbus - MicroClim8 - Mojo at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2022 - Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/ISC and OmniSkore!HD

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MicroClim8 eventually had to realize that Travis Woods substitute Ian Hodgkinson would not be able to compete for the team at the world meet. Finally, it was time again for former MicroClim8 videographer Phil Hartree to join the active lineup. It would be another new 8-way slot for him in a competition.

MicroClim8 eventually managed to complete eight hours of indoor training and approx. 80 jumps with the final lineup, with a total of 190 training jumps in all different variations. Former MicroClim8 videographer Phil Hartree stepped in a few more times in different slots when team members were not available due to the corona virus impact in Great Britain.

As one of the team members since 2019, Matt Cumming had ten different piece partners this year, including some former 8-way world champions though. Jordan Simcoe took the camera slot for Phil Hartree with little 8-way experiences. The world meet was his first trip to Skydive Arizona and the first visit in the United States. He had never even seen a Twin Otter before he arrived in Eloy.

Then came Round 1 after ten training jumps, and his camera work did not cause any point deductions, according to the scoresheets. MicroClim8 were surely dreaming as much of the first FAI bronze medals as Airbus did in Germany. The team's 10-round averages of 2016 and 2018 would have been enough, while the obstacle course of 2022 was in the way this time...