posted Apr 27th, 2024 - The FAI Indoor World Cup 2024 also included two other events, which were embedded with additional leaderboards. The participating teams applied the same competition draw for the ten rounds in all events, while they could win additional titles and medals on the top level of the embedded leaderboards of the European and Asian indoor championships.

Naturally, it was much easier for Asian teams to compete at the event in China, while it was a very long journey for any European and American teams. Only Europe and Asia have their separate indoor championships, and the Asiana indoor or outdoor championships always take place in one of the Asian countries. European teams have no separate FAI outdoor competition, while they have the opportunity to attend the annual European Skydiving League (ESL) Championship or visit other national outdoor championship events.

It was no surprise that the participation at the Asiana championship (18) of the indoor world cup was significantly higher than the number of teams from Europe (8). Additional four teams traveled to China from the United States (Arizona Airspeed, XPG4) and Brazil (Netunos, So Pressao).

French 4-way Open Class team Aethers had as little opposition on the European leaderboard as Arizona Airspeed and China had on their respective world cup competitions in 4-way Open and 4-way Women. Papea (Spain) and Echochamber Oceanside (Sweden) both distanced themselves from other European teams on the additional leaderboard and had their own European duel for the 2nd place behind France.

FAI European Indoor Championship 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	Combined AAA Class		8,C,7		K,G,12,B		6,4,H		20,1,5		15,10,A		F,O,P,21		19,M,9		J,13,E,22		16,3,N		L,Q,D,18		Total	Avg
1	Aethers	FR	32	-1	33		31		27		26		40	-2	36		28	-1	30		36	-1	319	31.9
2	NFTO	UK	26		27	-1	25	-1	25		23		36	-3	32	-1	27		23	-2	32		276	27.6
3	Papea	ES	30		28		25		24	-1	23	-2	38	-1	33		25	-1	22	-1	26	-3	274	27.4
4	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	24	-2	30	-2	27		25		22	-1	37		29	-3	24		25		28	-1	271	27.1
5	Fly X	IT	27	-1	26	-2	23	-2	22		22	-1	37	-2	30	-1	24		21	-3	27	-2	259	25.9
6	Crazy Dragons	CZ	24	-1	24	-2	21	-2	20	-1	18	-3	34		30		23		21	-1	26	-2	241	24.1
7	Out Of The Blue	NL	23	-3	23		19	-2	19	-2	17	-1	34		27		21		22		22	-3	227	22.7
8	Fire Phoenix	IT	16	-5	15	-4	16	-1	14		14	-1	23	-2	19	-2	17	-3	13	-2	19		166	16.6

4-way Women teams in yellow

---

---

Papea - Echochamber Oceanside at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024

---

Papea and Echochamber both were actually outscored by another European team. NFTO finished in 2nd place two points ahead of Papea. The British 4-way Women team still did not win any FAI medals in the European indoor championship, even though they were the only British AAA Class team in China, either in 4-way Open or 4-way Women.

The FAI/ISC rules do not restrict an all-female lineup from competing in 4-way Open if they chose to do so. Especially NFTO are used to find themselves on unlimited AAA Class leaderboards at other events. Only FAI/ISC events and a few other offer the separation of all-male and mixed-gender lineups from all-female teams.

FAI World Championships and FAI European Championships award the final rankings at these events to each country's national teams only on the respective leaderboards and in the medal positions. Additional participating teams do not appear in the official rankings, and the team names and members are irrelevant, as long as they match the FAI regulations.

The European indoor championship in China did not include a 4-way Women competition, as only NFTO and Fire Phoenix from Italy made the trip to China. NFTO were the only British 4-way team at the whole event, while FLY X represented Italy on the world cup and the European leaderboards both.

FAI Asian Indoor Championship 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	Combined AAA Class		8,C,7		K,G,12,B		6,4,H		20,1,5		15,10,A		F,O,P,21		19,M,9		J,13,E,22		16,3,N		L,Q,D,18		Total	Avg
1	China 4-way Women	CN	27	-4	33	-1	31		26	-1	21	-3	44		32	-3	29		29		33	-1	305	30.5
2	Qatar Tigers	QA	29	-1	32	-1	25	-3	25		25	-1	41		35		28		27		33		300	30.0
3	China 4-way Open	CN	25		27		26		24		22		33	-4	29	-2	25	-1	20	-3	30		261	26.1
G	Qatar Lions	QA	23	-2	22	-5	26		21	-1	19	-2	35	-2	30		25		25		26	-3	252	25.2
G	China 4-way Women 2	CN	25	-2	30		25	-1	19	-2	14	-4	34		27	-1	19	-4	20	-1	19	-5	232	23.2
4	Indonesia	ID	22	-4	23	-5	21	-3	18	-4	18	-1	30	-2	25	-1	20	-1	16	-5	26		219	21.9
5	Indonesia	ID	23	-3	21	-6	15	-7	15	-4	16	-2	30	-3	24	-1	19	-2	18	-3	21	-3	202	20.2
G	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	21		19	-2	20	-1	19		13	-3	27	-2	25	-1	22		14	-4	19	-1	199	19.9
6	Singapore	SG	19		13		19		13		15		26	-4	16	-5	17	-1	17	-1	18		173	17.3
7	South Korea	KR	14		18		18		10		14		22	-3	18		16		16		16		162	16.2
8	Singapore	SG	17		15	-3	16	-1	14		11	-2	23	-4	16	-3	15		13	-1	17	-1	157	15.7
9	Thailand	TH	12		15		14		11		12		22		18		14		14		12		144	14.4
10	Thailand	TH	11	-8	15	-3	15	-3	11	-2	11	-2	20	-5	17	-2	13	-3	15	-1	14	-1	142	14.2
11	Yangon	MM	8	-11	15	-2	16		10	-3	12	-1	23	-1	16	-3	15		10	-5	15		140	14.0
G	Indonesia 2	ID	12		11		13		13		11		20	-1	19		13		11		15		138	13.8
G	Singapore 2	SG	10		12		12		5		9		18	-5	18		13		13		11		121	12.1
G	Singapore 3	SG	6		10		13		8		9		10	-9	12		8		11		8		95	9.5
12	Malaysia	MY	2		2		1		3		3		7	-2	5		4		6		3		36	3.6

4-way Women teams in yellow

---

---

China 4-way Women - Qatar Tigers at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024

---

NFTO would have won additional FAI silver medals on the European 4-way Open Class leaderboard, on top of their silver medals in the 4-way Women event of the indoor world cup. However, they were not considered or registered as the official British national team in 4-way Open and won their medals only on the 4-way Women leaderboard of the event.

The embedded leaderboard of the Asian indoor championship was even more complicated than the situation of the European teams. The FAI world cups allow a total number of four teams to register for a country in each event. The combined AAA Class leaderboard of the Asian indoor championship features a colorful mixture of Asian 4-way teams.

The Qatar Tigers won the Asian gold medals in 4-way Open, as their official opponent was not the Chinese 4-way Women team. China also had a separate 4-way Open Class team who placed officially 2nd in this category behind the Qatar Tigers. Any additional teams of the same country had to be considered guests on the European and Asian indoor championship leaderboards. China's 4-way Women team was not the only one who outscored the country's 4-way Open Class team (305 - 261). Indonesia's 4-way Women team did the same (219 - 202), while Thailand's national 4-way teams finished on almost exactly the same level (144 - 142).