posted Dec 31st, 2024 - The NSL News has followed the development of 8-way competition in Germany carefully in the past years. Two different teams have won the 8-way bronze medals at the two previous outdoor world championships, Airbus Oceanside Illertissen in Eloy 2022, Operation Adler at Crystal Coast 2024.

The update on December 24th covered the next 8-way step in Germany, as members of the two opposing teams of the past two years are working on plans how to defend the FAI bronze medals successfully one more time in 2026.

The closer look at the different lineups since 2004 is showing that Airbus and Operation Adler both had a healthy mixture of highly experienced 4-way and 8-way competitors and new talent. Operation Adler had three team members who would have almost 20 years in 8-way training and competition together in 2026 (Olaf Biedermann, Goeran Meyer, Joern Thiele). Christian Schaefer and Thomas Mack look back at over ten years with the same 8-way team mates. Linda Köb, Felix Pfeiffer and Alexander Prendinger have been training and competing together in 8-way for two years, while having their main focus on their 4-way performances with Meltemi (Linda Köb), and the Airbus 4-way team (Felix Pfeiffer, Alexander Prendinger). This combination of experience and talent brought Operation Adler to the top position in Germany after the team was founded for the 2023 season.

Airbus 8-way members Steffen Schiedek and Uli Sehrbrock go back in time together even further and started in 8-way with the FSC Remscheid team three years before Operation Adler members Olaf Biedermann, Goeran Meyer, Joern Thiele joined the new Airbus 8-way lineup in 2007.

Max Thiele, Joern Thiele's jounger brother, and Thomas Spielvogel were back with the new Airbus lineup of 2019, as well, after all members of the 4-way team of Paranodon Eyjafjallajökull (Linda Koeb, Carl Enders, Stefan Knoch, Alexander Prendinger) joined the new Airbus 8-way lineup in 2018 and competed for Germany first time in Australia 2018.

Thomas Spielvogel was a part of the Airbus 2018 lineup, too, and missed the outdoor world championship due to injury. That's when Thomas Mack came back to 8-way with double duties in 4-way in Australia. He stepped back after that to focus on 4-way only and returned to more double duties in 2023. He won his first FAI medal with Operation Adler at Crystal Coast while competing for the unofficial amateur world championship title in 4-way. Operation Adler and the Airbus 8-way team clashed in 2023 and 2024, with Operation Adler having the upper hand in both years and their own FAI bronze medals in their collection.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		17,P,4	H,13,7	6,M,1	9,22,C	16,J,8	K,F,G,18	O,Q,5,12	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	23	18	26	22	22	24	16	151	21.6
2	USA	US	18	18	26	21	22	19	16	140	20.0
3	Ex3mo	IT	20	16	22	17	18	18	15	126	18.0
4	Airbus/EADS	DE	21	14	20	15	16	14	14	114	16.3
5	Connextion	UK	15	12	15	13	14	13	12	94	13.4
6	Belgium	BE	14	11	16	11	14	14	12	92	13.1
7	South Africa	ZA	14	9	16	12	13	11	-	75	12.5
8	Spain	ES	13	6	13	10	13	13	-	68	11.3
9	Australia	AU	11	5	10	9	9	7	-	51	8.5

Members of both teams plan to continue for the next two years, as the NSL News reported on December 24th. The reigning FAI outdoor bronze medalists seem to have a realistic chance to add a third bronze medal to their individual collections. The main question is behind the new lineup.

The two German 8-way teams have options. They were not far away from each other, neither at the two national showdown events in 2023 (132 - 121) and 2024 (140 - 134), nor with their world meet averages in Eloy 2022 (13.3) and in 2024 (14.3) at Crystal Coast. All members of both teams have not only the potential to compete for FAI medals. They have already won bronze at least once.

Both teams could continue and fill open slots in their own lineups, if necessary, or they could merge in different ways and bring together the strongest 8-way competitors from both teams. The 2008 lineup still owns the highest world meet average (16.3) after the seven rounds in Maubeuge.

Operation Adler's lineup included three members of the 16.3 lineup (Olaf Biedermann, Göran Meyer, Jörn Thiele) and two members of the extended Airbus lineup (Thomas Spielvogel, Max Thiele). There are several active and highly experienced 8-way competitors who could join this 5-way for a very strong combined lineup. The next German national 8-way team could be able to threaten both German record averages. The 2007 lineup, with Jens Gönnemann before current DFB President Henning Stumpp, owns the highest 10-round average with the 15.0 average at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2007.

FAI Outddor World Cup 2007			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		A,B,12,C	17,E,9	15,N,1	5,10,H	18,4,L	2,J,F,7	K,13,11	16,Q,21	3,19,20	D,O,22,P	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge	FR	20	18	27	15	24	19	17	23	20	21	204	20.4
2	Evolution Pro	RU	17	15	23	15	25	16	17	21	16	19	184	18.4
3	Ex3mo	IT	17	14	16	11	20	15	15	17	17	16	158	15.8
4	EADS	DE	14	13	21	11	20	13	13	13	16	16	150	15.0
5	Maubeuge NPC	FR	14	11	15	9	16	11	12	14	11	12	125	12.5
6	Sounds Grr8	UK	9	9	12	8	11	8	7	7	10	8	89	8.9