posted Mar 20th, 2006 - Round 4 of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2006 was obviously the fastest jump of the whole competition draw. But the sequence of only Random Formations (F-M-P-O-E) was even faster than other similar sequences drawn at earlier meets in the history of Formation Skydiving competiton.

With world class teams like DeLand Fire, Italy's Sinapsi PD and Team Fastrax in the field, there was a realistic chance that one of the top contenders might challenge the currently official 4-way world record of 42 points.

The French national 4-way team from Maubeuge, with Davide Moy, Erwan Pouliquen, Marin Ferre, Julien Losantos and Laurent Pechberty on camera, posted this standing world record in 2002 at the Coupe de France de Vol Relatif in Pujaut, France. It was later officially recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI).

Arizona Airspeed had owned the previous world record of 39 points until the French team took it in 2002.

Airspeed with Kirk Verner, Mark Kirkby, Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, Jack Jefferies and Steve Nowak on camera had scored the 39-pointer in round six of the USPA Nationals 1999 in Sebastian for another sequence of only Random Formations (M-O-H-B-P).

The sequence of the French 42-pointer in 2002 (B-F-L-A-N) was a little bit more challenging than Airspeed's 39-pointer in 1999, and the difficulty of the sequence at the FSL Shamrock Showdown last weekend was closer to Airspeed's record jump.

However, any fast sequence does not guarantee a new record, and any record jump in DeLand would only have the status of an inoffical record. The field of teams still made for a strong international competition, and there was enough performance pressure for the top teams to make the scores for each round become valuable.

One interesting aspect was the fact that Mark Kirkby with Team Fastrax had the opportunity to take back the record score that he owned with Airspeed in 1999. Fastrax ended up with 38 points for round four. The team was on track to get close to the current world record when a flaw interrupted the flow and limited the score to the 38 points.

Sinapsi PD got four points further and tied the French record with a 42-pointer. Then came DeLand Fire and wiped out everything that looked like a high score on the scoreboard in DeLand at that point. The 47-pointer was even five points higher than the official current world record in 4-way.

DeLand Fire had actually scored 48 points within working time. Videographer Jonathan Taggle missed his only exit of the meet in round four and was very disappointed. However, he still filmed an unofficial world record of 47 points. His team lost a total of six points throughout the 10-round meet, five of the six points due to infringements. Sinapsi PD lost only one point over the ten rounds.

The NSL-TV is working on the complete first round of the meet. The record jumps by France Maubeuge and DeLand Fire are a preview for the upcoming rounds of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2006. Stay tuned.