posted Aug 14th, 2015 - The next major 2015 event is the FAI World Cup in Teuge, Netherlands, and it will bring together a very interesting and competitive field in all traditional Formation Skydiving events (4-way Open, 4-way Women, 8-way Open).

As usual, the 4-way Open Class competition is the best attended event, and a total of 22 teams from 14 different nations were registered in July. Five additional 4-way teams from five different nations have signed for the competition in 4-way Women, and eight 8-way teams from eight different nations complete the traditional field in Formation Skydiving competition. Seven teams from six different countries are registered in VFS 4-way.

The World Cup rules allow each country to send up to four teams to the event, while the World Championship of Formation Skydiving is only open for each country's national team.

Registered 4-way Open Class: NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE), France Maubeuge (FR), Black Cat (RU), Thunder ISR (BE), Artemis Saumur (FR), Ex3mo (IT), Final Fire (AT), M4trix (NL), 4mula (UK), Barguzin (RU), XO-Team (RU), Tanay Wolves (RU), VAF Warriors (DK), AtomiX (DE), Energy Cumiana (IT), Eclipse (UK), Phoenix (UK), Cool Runnings (NL), TNT (RO), May Team (UA), Team Impulse (AU), Rafo (OM)

The 4-way Open Class competition is probably the least competitive of the three traditional Formation Skydiving events, as the reigning 4-way world champions, NMP-PCH Hayabusa from Belgium, are not facing any of the medal winners at the World Meet 2014 in Prostejov. Neither Arizona Airspeed nor Evolution from Canada has signed up for this year's World Cup.

However, the 4-way Open Class competition still offers at least very interesting insights of the current situation in two of the Formation Skydiving powerhouses, France and Russia.

The new French national 4-way team will attend its first competition with the new lineup that coach Marin Ferre has prepared for the competition, under the guidance of new national coach Mathieu Bernier. The double-gold world champion of 2010 will also compete as a player coach with his B-Team, Artemis Saumur and in 8-way.

World Cup 2013			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Class		O,4,H,3	9,17,P	L,1,G,12	7,10,21	16,E,A,15	8,2,B	18,5,Q	F,14,K,N	M,C,D,13	20,J,19	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	27	33	23	22	29	22	26	28	33	24	267	26.7
2	Barkli	RU	26	31	21	20	22	21	24	25	26	21	237	23.7
3	Maubeuge Aerodyne	FR	22	28	20	20	23	16	21	22	28	21	221	22.1
4	Ex3mo 4	IT	20	23	14	17	21	17	16	18	19	19	184	18.4
5	Sunny Wind	RU	14	23	14	17	20	12	14	22	21	17	174	17.4
6	Dubai Asaar Black	AE	16	15	13	15	20	16	17	18	17	13	160	16.0
7	Magic 4	LT	13	18	13	14	16	12	15	17	18	14	150	15.0
8	VAF Warriors	DK	16	16	12	12	15	13	12	16	17	12	141	14.1
9	a.team4way	RU	15	21	12	13	15	14	9	17	19	-	135	15.0
10	Raykipo	UK	14	16	13	13	12	13	14	15	17	-	127	14.1
11	Whooops	NL	12	17	12	14	11	14	11	14	19	-	124	13.8
12	Hexagon	SE	14	14	10	10	8	11	12	15	13	-	107	11.9
13	Eclipse	UK	13	15	12	12	11	13	13	16	-	-	105	13.1
14	Hyrrokkin	UK	14	13	11	12	15	13	11	14	-	-	103	12.9
15	Dubai Asaar Yellow	AE	14	15	12	10	10	12	11	11	-	-	95	11.9
16	Vesce	SI	6	7	5	7	5	3	7	8	8	-	56	6.2

The Sun Path Products NSL News reported on July 13th that Russia is sending a strong delegation to the World Cup in Teuge. Russia is in fact the only delegation with the maximum number of four teams in the 4-way Open Class competition.

Black Cat will most likely compete with the strongest available lineup (Valentin Ilin, Vassili Korotkov, Evgeny Stashchenko, Alexander Kvochur, Vadim Niyazov - Camera) which will bring the team automatically into medal contention. XO-Team, Barguzin and Tanay Wolves will probably compete for the best Russian finish behind Black Cat.

It will also be interesting to see how the best "amateur team" in the world, Thunder ISR, will keep up with the best teams from other countries. Thunder ISR competes officially for Belgium, and it is the first time that the same lineup will be on an official World Cup leaderboard. Thunder ISR had unofficially placed 2nd behind NMP-PCH Hayabusa at the World Cup 2012 in Prostejov.

World Cup 2012			Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Class		1,19,2	14,18,15	N,16,20	E,6,J,A	C,K,9,13	F,8,11	Q,22,L,21	B,17,H,P	12,D,0,4	G,10,7	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	21	19	22	33	31	22	23	40	24	26	261	26.1
2	Thunder	BE	20	17	20	24	27	20	20	31	20	19	218	21.8
3	SportLoto	RU	16	17	21	29	20	19	20	31	19	20	212	21.2
4	Satori	UK	16	15	17	28	23	19	20	25	19	20	202	20.2
5	Deep Blue Defenders	FR	16	15	17	27	21	17	20	31	19	16	199	19.9
6	Ex3mo 4	IT	17	12	17	28	20	15	19	28	17	15	188	18.8
7	Magic 4	LT	12	9	11	16	15	13	11	20	10	14	131	13.1
8	May Team	UA	11	8	8	16	12	11	11	17	13	-	107	11.9
9	Quagis	UK	6	6	6	9	8	7	8	8	4	-	62	6.9
10	Turkey	TR	5	6	6	7	8	7	7	9	5	-	60	6.7
11	Cyprus	CY	2	4	5	8	3	7	6	8	6	-	49	5.4

There is a cut after Round 8, and only the best ten teams will continue into the semifinals and Round 9. The second cut after Round 9 allows only the best six teams to compete for the FAI/IPC medals.

There will be a good competition for the ten slots in the semifinals between several teams. Artemis Saumur probably have their eyes on a slot in the finals where only NMP-PCH Hayabusa, Black Cat, France Maubeuge and Thunder ISR seem to have a guaranteed 10th round. Italy's top team EX3mo could also be a candidate for the last slot in the finals, together with Final Fire from Austria. The battle for the Top 10 spots will include the VAF Warriors from Denmark, M4trix from the Netherlands, AtomiX from Germany, 4mula from the United Kingdom and the rest of the field, including teams from Australia and Oman.

The Sun Path Products NSL News will introduce the 4-way Women and 8-way Open Class fields soon, which will have more serious competition for the gold medals...