posted Jul 10th, 2011 - The World Cup 2011 is just a few days over three weeks away. The registration deadline is passed at this point in time, and the field of teams promises exciting competition in all events.

38 teams will compete in the three traditional Formation Skydiving events, plus six teams in VFS 4-way. This brings four more teams to this year's World Cup in Saarlouis, Germany, compared to the World Cup 2009 in Prostejov, Czech Republic.

There will not only be more FS teams this year, the competition in Germany also has the character of a real world meet this time. The 2009 event was exclusively a European affair. The World Cup officially includes the European Championships, however, it was never meant to be only for European teams.

Four teams will travel to Germany from outside of Europe this year. Thanks to the Golden Knights, each of the three traditional Formation Skydiving events will have a team from the USA competing for medals. The Golden Knights did not have any lineup in Prostejov 2009, and only the 8-way team was qualified as the US national team for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia. This time, the US Army teams will compete in 4-way, 8-way and in the female 4-way category.

The fourth team from outside of Europe is visiting from Australia. Rotor Out has a strong lineup and brings back a topic that the NSL News discussed before the World Meet 2010 when a different Rotor Out lineup was planning to make the Top 10 in Menzelinsk and challenge the German 4-way team Paratec-Saar for the unofficial amateur world championship title.

The special aspect of this topic was the fact that Rotor Out member Jens Goennemann competed for Germany in 4-way and 8-way for several years before he moved to Australia. His 4-way team EADS was the German national team before Paratec-Saar took this position. EADS and Paratec-Saar also competed together in 8-way when EADS retired from 4-way.

Jens Goennemann had Stephany Bensley, Gary Nemirovsky and Darren Pearson in his lineup in 2010. The duel with the German team did not materialize that year, as Rotor Out canceled the trip to Menzelinsk, Russia.

The Rotor Out lineup that will compete in Saarlouis this year has three members of the 2010 lineup: Jens Goennemann, Gary Nemirovski and Stephany Bensley who is now Stephany Vaughan. Her husband Craig Vaughan completes the lineup, and Patrick Nygren is filming the team. Craig Vaughan trained and competed with Australia's Black team that attended the USPA Nationals 2009.

Black challenged Rotor Out at the Australian Nationals 2010, lost by 18 points (18.0 - 16.2) and Rotor Out later gave up the trip to Menzelinsk. Craig Vaughan has now joined the Rotor Out lineup that won the Australian Nationals 2011 in March and will visit Germany in August. The 15.0 average of March will not be enough to challenge the best German 4-way team this year. However, Jens Goennemann will eventually face his former German 8-way team mates in this special 4-way duel.

World Meet 2004			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Round 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		B-P-C-18	9-15-16	K-11-19	E-F-7-5	A-J-21-12	6-4-10	17-Q-L-1	H-14-3	13-22-O	N-M-D-2	Total	Avg
1	USA DeLand Majik		29	23	17	30	18	19	27	21	19	24	227	22.7
2	France Maubeuge		28	22	18	30	17	19	23	20	18	24	219	21.9
3	Russia SkyPanthers		24	21	19	25	22	15	28	19	16	22	211	21.1
4	Italy Sinapsi PD		22	21	20	28	21	18	23	19	16	22	210	21.0
5	Germany EADS		20	18	17	24	17	16	19	17	16	19	183	18.3
6	Belgium Hayabusa		21	17	17	21	11	16	20	17	17	21	178	17.8

It becomes even more interesting for Jens Goennemann in 4-way. The German national 4-way team with his former 8-way team mates of Paratec-Saar are probably out of reach. However, all of his former EADS 4-way team mates are also competing in 4-way.

Thomas Spielvogel, Göran Meyer and Olaf Biedermann have former X-Ray Remscheid and Final Four member Henning Stumpp in their lineup at the World Cup 2011. Jens Goennemann, Thomas Spielvogel, Göran Meyer and Olaf Biedermann competed together at four different world meets (2001, 2003, 2004, 2006) and won the unofficial title of the amateur world champions in Croatia 2004 with a 5th place and an 18.3 average and then again in 2006 with a 7th place and an 18.8 average.

The same 4-way staid together but switched to the 8-way event, while Paratec-Saar took over the 4-way top spot in Germany. Jens Goennemann then moved to Australia, and Henning Stumpp filled his slot in 8-way. The German 8-way team of 2008 now comes back for the World Cup 2011 with exactly the same lineup. Jens Goennemann's team Rotor Out from Australia will face his former 4-way team mates who compete with Dynamite.