posted Jul 9th, 2010 - The videos of the Midway Battle, provided by Skydive Chicago and Camscore, also included the two competition jumps of the Golden Knights in 8-way. The NSL News story on 12 June 2010 covered the Golden Knights scores and the situation of the French national 8-way team, Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge, after the meet weekend on June 11.

Both 8-way teams had agreed to jump the same competition draw, France at LeBlanc, host of the second Coupe de France 2010 event, the US Army team at Skydive Chicago during the Midway Battle.

The same story reported that the Knights had to cancel the meet after two rounds when team captain Brian "BK" Krause learned that his expecting wife would deliver earlier than scheduled. France completed all ten rounds.

June 11th,2010			Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAAClass		B,9,21	J,P,E,10	G,M,7,L	4,Q,14	22,6,19	5,3,16	Total	Avg
1	USA Golden Knights	News	18	21	-	-	-	-	39	19.5
2	France Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge8	News	18	17	19	19	17	20	110	18.3

The Road to Russia

The videos of the two rounds show a much stronger US Army team compared to the first appearance of the 2010 lineup at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010, which included an 8-way competition for the first time in the event's history.

The intensive training schedule of the young lineup, guided by highly experienced 4-way and 8-way competitors Brian Krause, Matt Davidson and Kurt Isenbarger, has paid back. The videos show a US Army team that looks sharp and very well trained.

The defending French 8-way world champions of 2006 and 2008, also with a new and young lineup, could not keep up with the Golden Knights over the first two rounds. The Army team did not win Round 1 due to a few glitches and then took the second round by four points.

Golden Knights at Skydive Chicago's Midway Battle 2010

The French 8-way team is fully aware of the challenging situation. The world champion team of 2006 and 2008 was much better trained, and the new lineup had bad luck with the weather and an injury earlier this year. The story on 26 June 2010 explained how France is trying to catch up.

It is interesting that the lineups of the French and the US team are very similar in their constellation. France has three highly experienced members, as well, who continued in 8-way after winning gold medals in 2006 and 2008: Mathieu Bernier, Clement Martin St. Leon and Erwan Pouliquen. The other five acting members are either experienced French competitors of previous national lineups (Martial Ferre, Damien Sorlin) or were recruited from the young French B-Team 4-way lineups (Arnaud Mille, Julien Olek, Thomas Perrin-Gachadoat).

Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge has had better luck with the weather at the last training camp, and the forecast is promising for the upcoming camp before the trip to the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia. Scheduling the camps is more difficult for France than for the Golden Knights since Mathieu Bernier is also training and competing in 4-way.

March 18th, 2010			Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAAClass		19,O,12	A,14,11	E,9,2	18,13,7	8,16,N	4,15,D	J,H,G,3	22,1,6	Total	Avg
1	USA Golden Knights	FSL	15	16	14	15	21	26	29	17	153	19.1
2	Russia Barkli	RU	14	16	16	16	18	20	18	18	136	17.0

The Golden Knights went through another indirect competition with the third top challenger this year, the Russian 8-way team Barkli. This test was not planned and happened when the Russian team decided to use the 8-way competition draw of the Shamrock Showdown 2010 at a May meet in Kolomna. The NSL News story on 4 May 2010 provided the details.

Barkli's 17.0 average came after hardly any training at all, as the team was just formed at the beginning of the 2010 season and already had the first personnel change. Nikolay Vylegzhanin replaced Michail Kuznetsov who decided to compete only in 4-way with the Sky Panthers. His three 4-way team mates Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamihin and Sergey Shenin train and compete in 8-way, as well. Russia is in a similar situation as France as of the double duties.

Russia was up to an 18.2 average after six rounds at the Russian Nationals 2008. The competition draw for the 8-way competition was not available. The Russian lineup consists of eight highly experienced competitors. However, the situation of the Golden Knights seems to be the most promising one, with no double duties and an unlimited training schedule. Round 1 of the World Meet is now three weeks away...