posted Dec 14th, 2007 - Italy still does not have a new national 4-way team. The NSL News story on 8 November 2007 provided the last update of the situation in Italy where the 4-way community is still in motion.

The November story explained that the Eutelia Spin Team, winner of the Italian Nationals 2007, had split up. Two team members were motivated to move on and were rejected by their association, the FIPaS Bureau of the Italian skydiving federation.

However, the two Spin Team members still took more action on forming a new line-up it and eventually presented a promising result. Marco Arrigo, former Sinapsi PD member and current member of the Italian 8-way team Ex3mo, was ready to fill one of the two open slots with the two Italian 4-way champions of 2007.

Marco Arrigo would surely make the new line-up of the former Spin Team even stronger. He competed with Sinapsi PD on a 21-point average level and missed the bronze medals with his former world-class team by one single point at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2004 in Croatia. Arianna de Benedetti, Luca Poretti and Livio Piccolo completed the Sinapsi PD line-up of 2004.

Sinapsi PD replaced Marco Arrigo with Pete Allum when he joined the 8-way team Ex3mo in 2005. It was a winning situation for the ambitious Italian 8-way team since the new member brought excellent skills and a lot of experience to the team. Ex3mo's progression has been quite impressive ever since.

In fact, the Italian 8-way team's new situation was now in the way for Marco Arrigo to accept the 4-way slot with the new Spin Team line-up. The officials of the Italian FIPaS Bureau still denied this 4-way line-up the status as the national 4-way team. They don't accept a national competitor representing Italy in 4-way and 8-way at the same international event.

They may have a point. The NSL News story on 1 October 2007 evaluated the international 8-way situation. The last two paragraphs covered the Italian 8-way team Ex3mo and its chances to possibly pursue a medal position in 2008.

The Italian officials seem to take the chances of their country's 8-way team quite serious. There is no other explanation why they would not allow a competitor to attend an international competition in both events.

There is no doubt that Ex3mo will have to perform on the team's top performance level to possibly challenge any of the three 8-way powerhouses from France, the USA and Russia. The Italian 8-way team will probably need Marco Arrigo's full attention next year in France, and the additional 4-way obligation could be in the way.

This new update from Italy still concludes as in November: "The NSL News will wait for the next update from Italy and a possible decision who will be selected as the Italian national 4-way team for 2008."