posted Oct 11th, 2011 - The NSL News covered the UK Nationals 2011 with several stories. The event was the biggest outdoor competition of the 2011 season so far and deserved the extensive coverage. Only the upcoming USPA Nationals 2011 could still beat the UK number of 55 teams.

There is still one story that has not received enough attention yet, and it comes along with a new NSL Profile. John McIver, original member of Sebastian XL and current UK 4way champion with Satori, celebrated his 13th national 4way gold medal at the UK Nationals 2011.

He was not alone with this kind of special achievement. UK competitor Andy Pook did even better with Microclim8 and won his 14th 8way gold medal, 13 of those were consecutively. He also looks back at a double gold year in 2005 where Airkix won as a female 4way lineup and his team Spank won the Open Class gold medals.

One of other notables at the UK Nationals 2011 was John McIver's Satori team mate Aaron Faith who won in 4way and 8way. Full Stop members Sian Stokes, Cath Anderson and Kyle Price did the same in the AA Class competition of both events. Another Satori member was the biggest gold winner of the meet. New Point Ian "Milko" Hodgkinson won 4way and 8way together with Tail Aaron Faith, and he was also player coach for Full Stop in the AA Class.

John McIver is still the UK's top 4way competitor, as he just overtook his mentor and team mate Pete Allum who looks back at 12 UK 4way gold medals. Neither of them is the longest standing UK competitor though, and John McIver knows this as he mentions Dane Kenny in his NSL Profile when asked where he will be in ten years from now: "Hopefully doing the same stuff. If Dane Kenny can do it - so can I!"

Dane Kenny was a member of UK team Symbiosis, the only team that has won 4way medals yet for the United Kingdom in the Open Class. That happened at the World Meets of 1979 (France - Silver) and 1981 (USA - Bronze) and before the rules for dive pool and sequences changed in 1985. Dane Kenny is still an active competitor.

World Meet 2003		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open	1-11-12	M-J-E-10	K-16-6	13-14-5	D-22-4	9-C-Q-N	F-19-21	2-20-L	18-B-3	8-P-7	Total	Avg
1	France Maubeuge	16	26	23	19	21	37	24	21	19	23	229	22.9
2	Golden Knights	17	24	22	19	18	35	22	18	19	20	214	21.4
3	DeLand Norgies	13	24	21	19	18	36	19	16	19	21	206	20.6
4	Sebastian XL	14	22	21	19	17	34	21	18	19	20	205	20.5

John McIver plans to do in ten years what he is doing right now: competing and coaching - and biking of course. It will be interesting to see if Satori will try to become the first UK 4way team winning a world meet medal after 1985. John McIver came as close as can be with XL at the World Meet 2003. The DeLand Norgies won the bronze medals by one single point in the final round. Now he will represent the United Kingdom once again at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2012 in Dubai, which will be the second world meet for Satori.

He also mentioned in the NSL Profile that he still enjoys the XL reunions at the annual World Challenge in Bedford. The original lineup competed at the World Challenge 2009. John McIver could not join the XL reunions of 2010 and 2011 since he was needed for Satori. The XL indoor scores after very little training explain easily why he somehow regrets that the XL lineup of 2003 disbanded too early.

Maybe it was too early in 2003, but it is still never too late. Former XL team mate Pete Allum eventually won his bronze medal with Italy's national team Sinapsi in Germany 2006. Thomas Hughes is currently chasing his gold medal with Arizona Airspeed. John McIver may again pursue his first world meet medal with Satori next year...