posted Sep 21st, 2023 - Teams and competitors at the USPA Nationals 2023 have turned to the 16-way event, where the combination of Arizona Airspeed, GKXP8 and XPG4, with two outsiders (Steve Lefkowitz, Doug Barron), dominate the leaderboard the same way as they did in 4-way and 8-way.

The NSL News is catching up with other events in the meantime, this time with more news from Great Britain. The update that covered the British Outdoor Nationals on September 17th focused mostly on NFTO's situation before and after the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving.

The same update pointed out that the British national team in 4-way Women was back on the podium with the 3rd place at the outdoor nationals, which qualified them once again for next year's outdoor world championship. NFTO are still the reigning world champions in 4-way Women, after they won the title in Eloy last year. They now have another year to prepare for the title defense in Israel 2024.

It was a close call at the British Outdoor Nationals that the AAA Class leaderboard only reveals with a second look. NFTO was challenged by another all-female lineup (All Up Front) who were actually leading by four points throughout Round 6 in this 4-way Women duel. The challenger did not complete the ten rounds on Sunday, and NFTO won the qualification.

British Outdoor Nationals 2023		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	F,22,P,J		10,B,12		8,16,D		O,Q,7,18		A,21,15		1,6,13		M,19,17		20,H,L,E		C,14,2		11,G,4		Total	Avg
1	Apex	21	-1	17		16		18	-3	14	-3	15	-2	19	-2	19		17		13	-1	169	16.9
2	Viserion	18	-1	15		13	-1	16	-1	13	-2	15		17		18		14		12		151	15.1
3	NFTO	17		11		13		14	-1	10	-1	13		16		16		11		11		132	13.2
4	Jafeika	11	-2	8	-1	7	-3	11		10		10		9	-2	10	-1	9		9		94	9.4
5	British Army Volt4ge	13	-1	8	-2	7	-1	11		9		9		11		8	-3	8		7	-3	91	9.1
6	All Up Front	16	-2	14	-1	12	-1	14	-4	14	-2	12	-1	0		0		0		0		82	8.2
7	Vantage	11		2	-2	0		0		0		0		0		0		0		0		13	1.3

The AAA Class winner and new national 4-way team, Apex, had to overcome some obstacles too before winning their first national 4-way title. Apex began with their preparations for the world championship qualification in April 2022 with mostly indoor training, where team members Pete Mather and Chris Judd switched to point and tail from their previous slots.

The outdoor training for the national championship earlier this month began in April, and the team managed to get two thirds of their scheduled training jumps in Great Britain. They also lost their original team videographer Alan Thompson early in the outdoor season due to injury and were struggling their way through the outdoor training with different substitutes on camera.

David Rodgers' and Marc Fletcher's former ACM Weembi team mate Hari Ganapathy eventually committed to the camera slot for Apex and completed more than 50 training jumps on camera.

It was not the end of the difficult road to the national championship for Apex. Chimera member James Woods stepped in for David Rodgers who was not able to attend the final training camps and the ten rounds at the British Outdoor Nationals. The lineup at the most important event had completed little over 50 training jumps.

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Apex at the British Outdoor Nationals 2023, video footage courtesy of British Skydiving/InTime

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Apex more or less stumbled to the 16.9 average after the completion of all ten rounds, with a total of 12 point deductions for the winning team. However, the original lineup had finished with a 14.9 average at last year's national outdoor championship, and the 16.9 this month is a great starting point for the upcoming road to the team's first outdoor world championship.

David Rodgers, Marc Fletcher's and Hari Ganapathy have world championship experiences after their ACM Weembi appearance for the British delegation at the FAI Indoor World Championship in 2019, where they had William Cooke in their lineup. Only substitute James Woods has competed at an outdoor world championship, with Chimera in Eloy 2022.

Apex are aiming at the next outdoor world championship in Israel next year, where they will try to defend Chimera's 5th place, which was the best placement of a British national team in 4-way Open since Sebastian XL's three consecutive 4th places in 1999, 2001 and 2003. James Woods' former Chimera team mates Sarah Ashworth, Laura Hampton and Will Cooke were back in 4-way action, as well. Sarah Ashworth and Laura Hampton threatened NFTO with All Up Front and former Satori and NFTO member Julia Swallow in the lineup. Will Cooke finished in 2nd place with Viserion.