posted Aug 26th, 2023 - Everything is said and done at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023, even though the NSL News aftermath of the event will on on for months. It was impressive how meet director Carl-Erik Tuv and his staff managed the weather situation and how the participants cooperated under the challenging circumstances.

All scheduled rounds were completed in all events in the later morning of Saturday, and rain came back soon after the conclusion. Teams and competitors even had extra time before the closing and awards ceremony on Saturday evening. Arizona Airspeed, winner of the traditionally largest event of world championships and world cups, took some of this extra time for NSL Live Talk.

The complete lineup, with Mikhail Markine arriving slightly delayed, agreed that they were happy with the results. It is not easy for the leader in the 4-way world to keep pushing their own performance level. Chris Kuhlmann said that they cannot afford to become lazy or complacent, even though the major opponents are still far behind at this point in time.

At least France and NMP PCH HayaBusa are close and eager enough to keep up the pressure on Airspeed. Once again, they could not get much closer to Airspeed at all, however, one of the reasons for this situation is the fact that the U.S. world champions have not slowed down their own efforts and can now guarantee a certain scoring and performance level that their opponents have not reached yet.

23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		3,G,N,19		11,17,L		13,7,C		2,D,O,8		14,K,J,12		9,M,P,H		5,4,18		15,1,10		16,21,E		F,20,6		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26		27		26		25		22		48	-1	22		21		25		25		267	26.7
2	France 4-way Open	FR	23		25	-1	26		24		19		45	-1	19		19		23		23		246	24.6
3	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	20	-4	20	-2	25		23	-1	18	-2	45		20		19		24		24		238	23.8
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	20	-1	22	-1	23		20		19		40		13	-4	17	-1	22		19	-4	215	21.5

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NSL Live Talk with Arizona Airspeed

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Opponents and observers came to Norway with the hope and expectations that the three challengers from France, Belgium and Qatar would show their own progression by winning or sharing highscores in a few rounds more than at previous events. It did not happen. There was only one round where France could tie the Airspeed highscore.

The young French team had tied two Airspeed scores at the Shamrock Showdown 2023, after the reigning world champions had won all ten rounds at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022. There was even more hope when the same French lineup won Round 9 at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023.

It was at the USPA Nationals in October 2021 when Arizona Airspeed lost their last outdoor round. SDC Rhythm XP outscored the same Airspeed lineup in three of the ten rounds, even though they lost the competition for the 1st place by 12 points (252 - 240). It was the last Rhythm competition with Christy Frikken in the lineup, who stepped in for JaNette Lefkowitz in 2020. Doug Barron was in the same lineup that outscored Airspeed the last time in a competition round. The new Rhythm lineup is slowly and consistently moving up the scoring charts and finished in 5th place in Norway. However, it will still take some time before they will be close enough to challenge Arizona Airspeed.

Arizona Airspeed is showing clearly that they are not slowing down, as the 26.7 average this week is this lineup's highest outdoor average in a 10-round competition. Joey Marshall and Christopher Kuhlmann have not lost an outdoor round since they joined Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine, and the current lineup is on the highest Airspeed scoring level ever. Only the 2018 lineup posted a higher meet average in Australia 2018, which was boosted by a 60-pointer Super Sequence (Q,M,F,C,N) in Round 6.

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Arizona Airspeed at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving - Video footage courtesy of InTime/FAI/ISC

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