posted Jun 10th, 2010 - The 8-way race for the gold medals between France and the USA at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia, began early this year and even before Russia had completed recruiting the final lineup of the third top contender.

The 8-way competition at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010 provided the first scores posted by one of the three top contenders, the Golden Knights. All videos of the US Army team at the Shamrock Showdown have been shown on NSL-TV, and the last 8-way story of the Shamrock Showdown on 26 March 2010 connected the US team with the reigning 8-way world champions from France.

French national coach Jérôme David visited DeLand to observe his national 4-way teams, Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge and Aerokart Deep Blue. But he also kept his eyes very carefully on the performance of the Golden Knights.

The French 8-way team had a training camp shortly after the Shamrock Showdown and surely jumped the same competition draw to compare the scores. Competition is not the same as training, and the scores did not really mean too much by then.

The situation is reversed almost exactly this weekend. This time, the French 8-way team is competing at the first meet of the Coupe de France 2010. The Golden Knights have been at the event site of Skydive Chicago's Midway Meet for a training camp, but they will not compete in 4-way.

The US team now had the chance to see what the French 8-way team will post on the French leaderboard this weekend. This was not exciting enough for Golden Knights team captain Brian "BK" Krause who has been looking for real competition practice with his new lineup.

He had already planned to use the competition environment in Ottawa to send his team into an 8-way practice meet where 4-way Chief Judge Judy Celaya could also evaluate the 8-way videos and post the scores. A new option became possible when he learned that the French 8-way team would be competing on the same weekend.

The NSL News had knowledge of both teams' plans and connected the dots to synchronize the 8-way competition draw, as well. This means that both 8-way top contenders will post scores for the same sequences this weekend and have at least an indirect live competition for the first time.

This time, the Russian team will probably check out the scores that France and Golden Knights will be posting. The World Meet in Russia will be the first time that all three 8-way top contenders will eventually compete at the same time and at the same place.

This weekend will be even more exciting - not only because the FIFA World Cup brings together the best Football/Soccer teams in South Africa. This happened in a very similar way in 2006 when the last FIFA World Cup took place in Germany, shortly before the World Championship of Formation Skydiving was hosted by a skydiving center in the same country.

Arizona Airspeed will compete at Skydive Chicago, while the French national 4-way team, Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge, attends the Coupe de France competition. Both teams will also use the same competition draw and have the first indirect outdoor confrontation with the complete lineups this year.

Airspeed missed the Shamrock Showdown in DeLand this year where the French team delivered a great performance. Then France also won the World Challenge 2010. This weekend's NSL leaderboard will show where both teams are currently standing - seven weeks before the start of the World Meet 2010. The NSL News will be on alert for updates all weekend long.