posted Apr 24th, 2023 - Arizona Airspeed and XPG4 were both available for NSL Live Talk after the Formation Skydiving part of the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023 was over on Saturday. Rounds 9 and 10 were scheduled for the last day of the competition, and they were completed in the morning. There was plenty of time until award and closing ceremony in the evening would conclude the event.

It was a successful visit of the U.S. delegation in Slovakia. The three 4-way Formation Skydiving teams won two sets of gold medals in 4-way Open (Arizona Airspeed) and 4-way VFS (SDC Core), and XPG4 added silver medals in 4-way Women to the U.S. collection.

France matched the gold/silver combination in the horizontal 4-way events in the reversed order. The 4-way Women team won the gold medals, and the 4-way Open Class team placed 2nd behind Arizona Airspeed. There was no French team on the 4-way VFS leaderboard.

It could have been even better for the U.S. delegation without a technical video glitch in Round 7 of the 4-way Women competition. The situation of Round 7 was one of the topics that the two U.S. teams discussed with the NSL News.

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NSL Live Talk with Arizona Airspeed and XPG4 after Round 10

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The French national team in 4-way Women was ahead of XPG4 by one single point after Round 6. Both teams were well ahead of NFTO in 3rd place, and the stage was set for an exciting showdown-duel in the last four rounds. XPG4 had a good Round 7 that Airspeed member Chris Kuhlmann timed for the U.S. team with 33 points in working time.

XPG4 left the windtunnel for a lunch break, as there was a longer pause to be expected and scheduled before Round 8. However, the lunch break was soon interrupted when the team received the message that they would have to repeat Round 7 due to a technical issue during the previous performance of the same round.

Chris Kuhlmann said that he noticed a glitch during the presentation of the competition video on the TV screens, followed by more potentially technical hiccups. However, he and Niklas Hemlin both saw a good round by XPG4, and the U.S. team was then called back to the flying chamber for the re-flight of Round 7, together with France and NFTO.

It is unclear whether the performance of all three teams was based on the same technical interference or not. Fact is that France and NFTO tied the highscore for the round with the second attempt, while XPG4 scored at least four points lower compared to Chris Kuhlmann's timing.

FAI World Championship 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		E,14,3		K,F,22,17		O,7,5		N,2,18		L,P,12,15		M,10,D,H		16,9,C		1,G,J,8		4,Q,21		6,20,A		Total	Avg
1	France 4-way Women	FR	24	-2	30	-1	34	-1	22	-1	27		36		34	-1	27		25		26		285	28.5
2	XPG4	US	25		28	-1	33		25		25	-2	36		29	-3	24	-2	26		25	-2	276	27.6
3	NFTO	UK	25	-1	29		30	-2	20	-3	22	-3	32		34	-1	27	-1	23	-2	26		268	26.8
4	HF Cubs	CZ	22	-2	25	-3	33		23	-1	19	-5	31	-1	33	-1	25	-3	23	-4	24	-2	258	25.8
5	Piteraq	DE	22		19	-2	25		19		20		27		24		20		21		21		218	21.8
6	Airdrops	CH	18	-1	19	-2	23		13	-3	19		24		22	-1	19		21		16	-4	194	19.4
7	Windabona Angels Chicas	ES	18		16	-1	20	-1	16	-1	16	-1	22		16	-4	16	-1	18		17	-1	175	17.5
8	Fire Phoenix	IT	17		17	-1	20		14		14	-2	20	-2	16	-2	14	-1	16		16		164	16.4
9	Kiss My Grips	SK	13	-1	14	-2	19		14		12		19		16	-3	16	-1	16		13	-2	152	15.2

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XPG4 at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, video footage courtesy of FAI/InTime

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XPG4 did not recover very well from the Round 7 incident and lost the following round to the two major opponents by three more points. France was nine points ahead after Round 8, and the sole highscore in Round 9 was far from enough to get close again to the top of the leaderboard.

XPG4 did not complain. The top competitors know that it is difficult to repeat a good round, even though the circumstances were unusual in this case. It was not the complete 4-way Women field that had to repeat the sequence. Only the three teams in the medal positions after Round 6 were called back for a re-flight.

The HF Cubs were still within striking distance to a medal position after Round 6, five points behind NFTO in 3rd place, with four more rounds to go. However, only France, XPG4 and NFTO had to do the re-flight.

XPG4 could still look back at a very successful performance in Slovakia, as Niklas Hemlin pointed out: "They had three weeks of training before the event, finished with a new team record average for a slow draw, and won the silver medals. That's more than enough reason to be happy."

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		E,14,3		K,F,22,17		O,7,5		N,2,18		L,P,12,15		M,10,D,H		16,9,C		1,G,J,8		4,Q,21		6,20,A		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27		35		39		27	-2	31		38		38		29		28	-1	31		323	32.3
2	France 4-way Open	FR	27		33		38		26	-2	28		33	-3	35		28		30		30		308	30.8
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	26	-1	30		33	-3	26	-3	28		37	-1	37		28		29		30	-1	304	30.4
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24		29	-1	32	-1	26		25	-3	32		30	-2	26		25	-1	26	-1	275	27.5
5	Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource	DE	22	-2	28	-1	33		22		25		30	-2	31		24		24	-1	25	-1	264	26.4
6	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	22		26	-1	30		17	-5	24		28	-3	27	-2	23		24		25	-1	246	24.6
7	FLY X	IT	19	-4	27		30	-1	20	-1	21	-1	29	-2	30	-1	23	-1	22	-2	24	-1	245	24.5
8	HF Flying Circus	CZ	20	-2	23	-1	29	-1	22		20	-2	30	-2	29		24		20	-3	25		242	24.2
9	Purple Maze	FI	22		26		29		19	-3	21		29		27		25		21	-3	21	-2	240	24.0
9	Papea	ES	23	-1	24	-2	29	-2	19	-5	21	-2	28	-2	28		25		21	-1	22	-2	240	24.0
11	Out of the Blue	NL	22		23	-2	27	-2	21	-1	21		26	-1	26	-1	22	-1	21		22		231	23.1
12	Agera	NO	22		24		29		19	-1	23		25	-2	26	-2	23		19	-2	19	-3	229	22.9
13	Meraki	UK	17	-4	24		26	-3	22		19	-2	27		28		22	-1	23		18	-5	226	22.6
14	INIT-Y	BR	19	-2	20	-3	29		15	-4	19	-1	27		27		23	-1	23		20	-2	222	22.2
15	Realfly Fire	CH	20	-1	21	-2	26	-1	17	-2	20		27		24	-2	23		20	-1	19	-3	217	21.7
16	Bronteroc	HU	20	-1	22	-1	24	-3	18	-1	20	-1	26	-1	25	-1	19	-1	21		18	-2	213	21.3
17	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	21		21	-1	24	-3	16	-2	21		27		25		17	-6	20	-1	20	-1	212	21.2
18	Red Bull Aerodynamix	AT	20	-1	21	-2	21	-3	16	-2	23		26	-1	25	-1	16	-3	20	-1	20	-1	208	20.8
19	Magic 4	LT	17	-1	19	-2	23		15	-4	20		27		25	-1	18	-3	19		18	-2	201	20.1

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Arizona Airspeed at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, video footage courtesy of FAI/InTime

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