posted Aug 28th, 2023 - The actual World Cup part of the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving did not offer much of battles for medals on the top of the leaderboards for the three horizontal events. NMP PCH HayaBusa's start into the competition was compromised by the late arrival and Jeroen Nollet's missing equipment. The Belgians had finally warmed up enough at half-time and then competed head-to-head with France. However, it was too late to challenge France for the silver medals.

GKXP8, Qatar Falcons and Prison 9 had no serious opposition in 8-way in their respective medal positions. It was the same situation for XPG4, France and Meltemi Oceanside in 4-way Women.

However, there was excitement in the embedded competition of the 15th FAI European Formation Skydiving Championship. France and Belgium were settled in their 4-way Open Class medal positions, while nothing was decided between Germany (Airbus Illertissen Oceanside) and Italy (Amnesya) until Round 10. Thyra (Norway) and NFTO (Great Britain) went into Round 10 of the 4-way Women competition with the same 2-point difference that separated Airbus and Amnesya. The 8-way competition did not have enough teams from Europe to invite any of them on the podium at the award ceremony.

Only the nationals teams of each country are a part of the FAI European Formation Skydiving Championship, and the embedded leaderboard included the teams from eleven countries.

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NSL TV Unfiltered: Airbus Illertissen - Amnesya at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving

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Airbus had the advantage in the early rounds of the competition over Amnesya. In fact, the German national team was in 5th place of the world cup leaderboard until SDC Rhythm XP picked up the pace after Round 3.

It was the opposite situation for the Italian team. Amnysia lost each of the first three rounds to Airbus, even though only by a point each. This allowed Amnesya to maintain enough close proximity to the Germans, which lead to the final showdown in Round 10.

Airbus became the second German 4-way Open Class team to step onto the podium of an outdoor world cup. Paratec Saar did this for the first time in Saarlouis 2011. Two of the 2011 bronze medal winners, Markus Bastuck and Jörn Thiele, are now joining forces with three Airbus members Thomas Mack, Felix Pfeiffer and Alexander Prendinger to challenge Thomas Spielvogel's Airbus 8-way lineup, together with Meltemi Oceanside's fresh bronze medalist in 4-way Women, Linda Köb, who was still in the Airbus 8-way lineup until October 2022.

Both German national 4-way teams are now on the way from Norway to the Fallschirmsportzentraum Saar in Saarlouis, where Round 1 of the national outdoor championship is scheduled for this Wednesday. Both teams are likely to win the two 4-way top spots. There does not seem to be a serious opponent for Airbus, as it was the case in 2021 when Oceanside AtomiX were ahead of Airbus until Round 9. Airbus won the Super Sequence in Round 10 by ten points and walked away with the German 4-way title.

Former AtomiX member Andrea Kleinschmidt was not any longer in the AtomiX lineup of 2019. She is now a Meltemi member and will compete with her new team later this week, as well.

FAI European Championship 2023			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	France 4-way Open	FR	23		25	-1	26		24		19		45	-1	19		19		23		23		246	24.6
2	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	20	-4	20	-2	25		23	-1	18	-2	45		20		19		24		24		238	23.8
3	Airbus Illertissen Oceanside	DE	17	-1	18		20	-1	17		14		31	-1	15		15		18		18		183	18.3
4	Amnesya	IT	16	-1	17		19		17	-1	16		31	-1	15		14		18		18	-1	181	18.1
5	Papea	ES	14	-3	17	-1	18	-1	17		14	-1	32		14	-1	15		18		18		177	17.7
6	Out Of The Blue	NL	17		15	-1	18		16	-1	15		31	-4	14		13		16		18	-1	173	17.3
7	Agera	NO	15	-2	13	-2	16		18		12	-1	32	-1	13	-1	15		18		13	-4	165	16.5
8	Aurora	SE	14		14		15	-1	13	-1	12		26		11	-1	13		13	-1	17		148	14.8
9	Sequenz	DK	14	-1	12		15	-1	12	-1	10	-1	24	-1	12		11		12	-1	13		135	13.5
10	ALIS	UA	11		10		9	-2	11		10		20	-1	9		9		10	-1	14		113	11.3
11	DNF	UK	11	-1	9		12		11		9		21		9	-1	9		8	-1	10	-2	109	10.9

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Airbus Illertissen Oceanside - Amnesya at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving - Video footage courtesy of InTime/FAI/ISC

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