posted Nov 8th, 2010 - The NSL News goes back to the more recent history after the excursions to the very beginning of Formation Skydiving competition with Jerry Bird and earlier to the roots of Arizona Airspeed.

Rounds 7 and 8 of the female 4-way competition at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 have now been uploaded and are available for reviews.

The stories of the previous rounds explained that there was not really much competition in this category. All eight teams were in their final positions after Round 3, except Germany (ISB Air) and USA (Spaceland Blue). Those two teams battled for a little bit longer and until the US team finally shook off the persistent German underdogs. The situation after Round 8 was still the same and would not change anymore.

World Meet 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women	10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	France Aerokart Deep Blue	20	19	47(-1)	18	19	20	21	21	-	-	185	23.2
2	UK Team Bodyflight	16	17	44	17	17	19	18	19	-	-	167	20.9
3	USA Spaceland Blue	17	14	38(-1)	15(-2)	16	15(-4)	17(-1)	15(-2)	-	-	147	18.4
4	Germany ISB Air	16	15	39(-2)	13(-2)	13(-3)	15	16	14(-2)	-	-	141	17.6
5	Norway Polaris	14	12	30	11(-1)	14	12	14	15	-	-	122	15.3
6	Russia Prygalky	13	10	21(-2)	13	13	12	10(-2)	13	-	-	105	13.1
7	Sweden Women	9	7	20	9	11	8(-1)	11	11	-	-	96	12.0
8	China Women	9	9	17(-2)	5	5(-4)	6(-4)	11(-2)	8(-2)	-	-	70	8.8

World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk: Rounds 7 and 8 in 4-way Women

The teams were still heavily involved in their own races in different ways. First of all, there is always the pursuit of excellence and new personal and team records. In addition, teams can also look across the leaderboard and compare their scores to the teams in the Open Class competition, which used the identical competition draw.

The NSL News covered Aerokart Deep Blue's performance in relation to the Open Class leaderboard earlier. The French national team in the female 4-way category would have finished tied with Italy's national team Sinapsi in 6th place with a 23.6 average.

There were also other internal national battles that were at least very exciting for the engaged teams. Norway's 4-way teams X3M4S Elements (4-way Open) and Polaris (4-way Women) were done with their race after Round 8, as X3M4S Elements did not make it to the semifinals. The Open Class team won by four points after each team won three rounds and two rounds were tied. Both Norwegian 4-way teams then joined forces to compete in 8-way for Norway.

World Meet 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Norway	10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	Norway X3M4S Elements	14	11	30	14(-1)	13	15(-2)	13(-2)	16	-	-	126	15.8
2	Norway Polaris	14	12	30	11(-1)	14	12	14	15	-	-	122	15.3

World Meet 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way United Kingdom	10,7,12	3,11,5	J,M,Q,P,L	19,1,13	N,18,20	K,17,8	2,15,H	4,D,6	O,E,9,G	22,B,16	Total	Avg
1	UK Satori	18	18(-1)	47	16(-1)	17(-2)	18(-1)	17	18(-1)	-	-	169	21.1
2	UK Team Bodyflight	16	17	44	17	17	19	18	19	-	-	167	20.9

The British race between Satori in the Open Class and Team Bodyflight was even closer. The all-female lineup was only two points behind after Round 8. Team Bodyflight had lost only the first three rounds and then never gave away a round to Satori.

In fact, Team Bodyflight reduced the 6-point deficit after Round 3 step by step and ended up one single point behind Satori after Round 9. Only the bell saved the Open Class team, as the meet was over for Satori after the semifinals. Team Bodyflight had another great jump in Round 10 and might have caught up with Satori.

However, UK's female national team benefitted greatly from Satori's penalty troubles. The NSL News counted a total of seven point deductions for Satori, while Team Bodyflight did not encounter any problems at all with the judges in Menzelinsk. Eventually, Satori got away with the second victory over Team Bodyflight after winning the UK Nationals 2010 by 19 points (207 - 188).