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226 Pecan Street
Deland FL 32724
tel: (386) 801-0804
© 2003 - 2024
All Rights Reserved
supported by:
The British and French 8-way teams both were expected to compete for the FAI bronze medals at Skydive Arizona, together with Germany's Airbus 8-way lineup. Mojo was sanctioned late by the French federation and was not expected to win medals or perform on a similar level as the French national 8-way teams in the past.
It was an unexpected surprise that Mojo, with former 8-way world champion Emmanuel Sarrazin in the lineup, could have been in the race for bronze medals. It did not happen, and France ended up in 5th place. It was the first time since 1985 that France did not win a medal in 8-way Open at an outdoor world meet, disregarding Australia 2018, where no French 8-way team competed at all.
MicroClim8 had outscored Germany's Airbus 8-way lineups twice, first in Ottawa 2016, and again in Australia 2018. The run-up to this year's outdoor world meet was too difficult for MicroClim8, and the British 8-way team just had to watch and accept the last part of the story with the happy end for the Germans.
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 | ||||||||
The first Airbus/EADS lineup at a world championship (Maubeuge 2008 included four team members (Olaf Biedermann, Goeran Meyer, Thomas Spielvogel, Max Thiele) who just won the first FAI medals for Germany, 14 years after their first world meet.
Max Thiele's brother Joern, who was also in the 2008 lineup, won this year's German 8-way title when Max was not available. Olaf Biedermann could neither make the national championships this year, and Airbus 4-way member Alex Prendinger was helping out. He was in the 8-way lineup until the end of the 2021 season and very familiar with the dive pool and slots. All other six members of the active lineup in Eloy won the German 8-way competition again in September.
Team videographer Erik Lorenz missed the national championships, as well, after an injury, and he did not have much time to recover before Round 1 in Eloy. However, he made it and delivered once again the video quality on the highest level that has backed up the Airbus performance for many years.
together with very small changes since the complete 4-way lineup of team Eyjafjallajokull joined the Airbus 8-way team in 2018. The other four slots could always easily be shared between the available Airbus 8-way veterans of many years. The combination of the experienced 8-way competitors and the complete Eyjafjallajokull 4-way lineup could never be matched by any other German 8-way team.
Last month, the current lineup combination was even strong and consistent enough to win the first medals for Germany at any FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving since 1985. The dominance over MicroClim8 and Mojo in Eloy was still challenged once in Round 5, when the Swiss Bear in Block 2 bit Airbus badly, which resulted in a 4-pointer on the leaderboard.
MicroClim8 and Mojo were still close enough, and a down-spiraling performance after the Block 2 accident could have changed the final outcome. Airbus did not blink and recovered like a world-class team with the next highscore over the two opponents.
The 8-way bronze medal for Germany was actually not the first time in history that a German 8-way team finished in a medal position. The national team of 1977 won silver medals behind the United States with skydiving legend Jerry Bird. However, the current rules and regulations were introduced in 1985, which is also the start of the modern era of Formation Skydiving competition for the NSL News...
