posted Sep 6th, 2007 - The USPA Nationals were already hosted once by Skydive Chicago. It was the year 2002 when the NSL News already traveled to Ottawa and reported live from the competition site. It was also the year when the Golden Knights won the 4-way competition over Airspeed Vertical and DeLand Majik.

The NSL News of the earlier years were not entered into the current database and cannot be accessed in the NSL on-line archives, which only go back to the 2003 season. However, the old files are still available, and the NSL News was curious to see how the event coverage of the USPA Nationals 2002 was concluded.

The last meet story brings back memories of an extremely exciting competition in Ottawa where the Golden Knights celebrated the greatest 4-way victory in team history. The 2007 line-up of the Army team now returns to the place of glory. John Hoover and Kurt Isenbarger were members of the 2002 line-up in the front piece and work in the center of the current line-up. Here is the NSL News story of September 7, 2002.

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USPA Nationals 2002

The USPA Nationals 2002 ended with a surprise that was not really a surprise. The Golden Knights Gold team is the new 2002 USPA Champion in 4-way Formation Skydiving and will take on the French national team next year at the World Championship in France for the gold medal.

The Army team's victory was not really a surprise anymore after the first day of the competition. The Knights had not only kept up with the defending world champions, Airspeed Vertical, and the new record holder, DeLand Majik, from the very beginning of the meet at Skydive Chicago last weekend.

After being tied with Airspeed and two points ahead of Majik through round four, the Knights took the winning lead already in round five and never gave it up again.

Due to the most consistent performance without any signs of weakness between the three top contenders, the Knights successfully completed the first task of their mission.

The next task is the 8-way event of the USPA Nationals before the Army team will then begin preparing for the World Championship in 2003.

The Gold team's victory over such strong contenders as Airspeed and Majik was still not such a big surprise. Although most of the attention in the 4-way world was given to the duel between Airspeed and Majik through the whole 2002 season, the Golden Knights had not made a secret of their potential to stand up against the top contenders.

The Knights' Gold team had shown consistent progression meet by meet of the Carolina Skydiving League this year (19.9 - 20.2 - 23.0 - 23.7). And they seemed to be more than ready for the USPA Nationals after posting the 23.7 meet average at the last CaSL meet of the 2002 season.

However, it was still quiet around the Golden Knights headquarters and team captain John Hoover who prefers a chilled atmosphere for himself and his teams anyway. At the same time, the skydiving world was wondering whether Airspeed would be able to defend against the attacking Majik from DeLand.

Majik had defeated the current world champions from Arizona two times this year, first on home turf at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2002 in March and then once again at the Malevsky Memorial Cupin Russia in July. The only discussion was about the question if Airspeed would be able to recover and come back strongly at the USPA Nationals.

Few people thought much about the Golden Knights Gold team in the whole picture. Would they have a chance at all to give the other two top teams a serious competition? Yes, there was the chance that Airspeed and Majik would go so hard at each other that they would make mistakes and open the door for the Golden Knights.

And it almost seems as if this was the case at Skydive Chicago on Saturday and Sunday. But it was not really. Airspeed and Majik surely made some of these mistakes the Knights were waiting for. However, the Army team did not only win because of Airspeed's and Majik's mistakes. The Golden Knights won the gold medal since they were simply the best team on these two days.

The Knights offered the clearest evidence for their outstanding performance and more than only consistency in round five of the competition when they left Airspeed and Majik in the dust and took the lead that they never gave up for the rest of the meet. Event though Airspeed and Majik took turns in trying to make it up in the remaining rounds, the Golden Knights did not show any weakness and stood their ground until they landed after round ten - three points ahead of Airspeed and six points ahead of Majik. Congratulations to the new USPA 4-way champion of 2002.

Some questions will still remain unanswered. How much did Joey Jones' injury affect the Majik performance? With good sports, Majik members insisted that Jones' mishap on the day prior to the start of the meet was no excuse for the results. However, Joey Jones is Center Outside of the team and has to launch the exits from his right foot. Who knows how much more cautious than usual the team was subconsciously not to make contact with Jones in freefall?

Although these questions may be discussed, it all does not matter anyway.

Fact is that each team has to be ready at the day of the meet - healthy, happy and prepared. Majik had bad luck with the injury.

And they did their best to still deliver the winning performance without success. The Majik members took it the way it came out without any complaints.

The season is not over yet. And all three teams still have the chance to show their best performances. The Knights, Majik and Airspeed will all compete again at the World Cup 2002 in October in Spain. France Perris-Maubeuge will be there to compete with the U.S. teams.

And in November, the Golden Knights will have to defend the Shugar Cup at the NSL Championship 2002. The Army team is the defending NSL Champion, as well. For now, let's give the teams a rest...