posted Dec 24th, 2004 - NSL fans were interested in the details of the eligibility status for the former XL members Thomas Hughes and Pete Allum. Both world class competitors competed for the United Kingdom at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2003 in Gap, France. XL with Thomas Hughes, Pete Allum, Steve Hamilton, John McIver and Rob Stevenson on video missed the bronze medal by one single point at the Mondial 2003. Then the team discontinued and none of the team members competed at any IPC sanctioned international meet in 2004 (Malevsky World Cup in Russia, World Championship in Croatia).

Both Allum and Hughes continued as coaches and competitors, with their home bases and activities mostly in the USA. Allum trained and competed with DeLand Scape throughout the 2004 season, while Hughes joined Arizona Blade. Both teams competed at the NSL Championship 2004 where Blade won the NSL Shugar Cup as the new NSL champion and Scape took the silver medals. Blade also competed as a guest team at the USPA Championship 2004. The team finished in third position in Perris but could not receive USPA medals due to Hughes' status as a guest competitor.

The NSL News recently reported that Hughes continues together with his Blade teammate, Natasha Montgomery. The new team has Gary Smith, Shannon Pilcher and Ian Bobo in the line-up. Hughes will be the team videographer and alternate. Former XL teammate Pete Allum has new plans for the 2005 and 2006 season. DeLand Scape will not continue as a team, and Allum has joined the Italian national 4-way team, Sinapsi PD.

The new teams of both former XL members have very high goals. Sinapsi PD with the line-up of the past three years (Marco Arrigo, Arianna de Benedetti, Livio Piccolo, Luca Poretti) missed medals at the world meets in 2003 and 2004 after competing at the very top level. The bronze medal for Italy was only one single point away in Croatia and was taken by the Russian team Sky Panthers. Sinapsi PD did not exactly know about the team's future when the NSL News interviewed Arianna de Benedetti for a new NSL Profile in October 2004.

Sinapi PD's Tail, Marco Arrigo, then decided to leave the team, and the remaining team members began looking for a replacement. Pete Allum has already coached the team in the past and spent a lot of time in Italy. He also speaks fluently Italian. It did not take too long until Sinapsi PD and Allum began talking about the possibility of him joining the Italian team.

There was naturally an obstacle in the way that needed to be taken care of before any commitments could be made. Would Allum be eligible to compete for medals at the world meet in 2006? The IPC rules require a FAI sporting license for competitors who want to have the right to represent a country at a world championship. The FAI (Federation Aeronautique Internationale) has set the rules for international competition in its sporting code. FAI sporting licenses can be issued to competitors with "multiple nationality":

The FAI rules obviously do not allow a competitor with "multiple nationality" to switch back and forth from one national team to another at any time. There are restrictions, which are defined in the paragraph above. Pete Allum has had resideny in Italy for several years due to his very popular coaching activities in the South-European country, as he confirmed to the NSL News. He will have "not represented a different NAC" for the required three years in 2006, when the next world meet will be held in Germany.

Allum's last active participation for the United Kingdom at an FAI sanctioned world meet was at the Mondial 2003 in France. There will be a period of three years gone by before he will compete again at a world meet, this time for Italy. Not exactly though.

The Mondial 2003 was held in the beginning of September 2003. XL with Pete Allum and Thomas Hughes made their last jump with round ten of the competition on September 11, 2003. The next world meet in Germany is scheduled for August 5 - 11, 2006. No need for a calculator, it is obvious that the time period between the two world meets does not exactly complete three calendar years.

Sinapsi PD and Pete Allum were much aware of this little flaw of the plan. However, they were convinced that the correct interpretation of this FAI rule meant the general idea of a three-year period from world meet to world meet, disregarding the exact number of calendar days in between. The new Sinapsi PD still did not want to take chances and take the risk of a bad surprise when registering for the world meet in 2006. Pete Allum wrote a letter to Max Bishop, the General Secretary of the FAI, and asked for clarification and approval of the plan.

Bishop answered quickly and confirmed the common-sense interpretation of the FAI rules:

Italy's national rules do not include any restrictions for Allum to become a member of the Italian national team. He will be able to compete for medals at the Italian Championship 2005 and qualify for the world meet with Sinapsi PD. With the written FAI approval by Max Bishop there was nothing in the way any longer for Sinapsi PD and Pete Allum to commit to the 2-year plan. The training with the new line-up will begin very soon. Another new slot is waiting for Allum who used to be in the front piece with XL, then became Center Inside for DeLand Scape. He will fill the Tail slot for Sinapsi PD.

Pete Allum is covered and ready to go. What about former teammate Thomas Hughes? Is he exactly in the same situation? The NSL News will follow up with this story next. In the meantime, you discuss the rules of the FAI Sporting Code in the NSL Discussion Forum.