posted Oct 18th, 2019 - It has been a while now that FAI/IPC apply the same numbers and letters for the competition draw in all four Formation Skydiving categories (4-way Open - 4-way Women - 4-way VFS - 8-way Open). It happened again at the FAI Outdoor World Cup last week. 8-way Open and 4-way VFS have naturally different maneuvers for the same numbers and letters.

The identical competition draw, sequences and maneuvers for teams in 4-way Open and 4-way Women allows to compare the scores directly, and the NSL News aftermath of major events includes this feature traditionally.

There are actually three different ways how 4-way teams and competitors form their teams, even though the current FAI/IPC rules offer only two categories: 4-way Open and 4-way Women. There are also a lot of teams with female and male competitors in the same lineup, which was normal procedure before the 4-way Women event was officially introduced at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2001.

In fact, the majority of teams at the FAI World Cup 2019 consisted of mixed-gender lineups (8), followed by all-female lineups (7) who had their own leaderboard. All-male lineups (5) had the minority, while they generated the winner on the combined leaderboard, Arizona Airspeed.

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FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/4-way Women		13,11,16		P,22,4		O,7,21		9,20,G		18,15,L		K,10,3		6,14,C		1,M,A,17		F,D,Q,8		2,5,E		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	20	-1	22		28		29		21		21	-1	21	-2	29		31	-2	24	-2	246	24.6
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	19	-1	22		25		21	-2	20	-1	20		23		25		29	-1	24	-2	228	22.8
3	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	17		19		25		20		20		19		20		23		25	-1	21		209	20.9
4	Airspeed Odyssey	US	14	-2	17	-2	22	-2	21	-2	18	-1	16	-3	21		23		26	-3	17	-2	195	19.5
5	NFTO	UK	17		17		23		19	-1	17		17		19		21		23	-1	20		193	19.3
6	Defiance	US	17		17		21	-1	22		16	-2	15	-2	21		20	-2	26		16	-2	191	19.1
7	Aerodyne Cypres Lille-Bondues	FR	15	-1	16		19		21		16	-1	17		18		22		25		21		190	19.0
8	Echochamber	SE	17		14	-3	22		20	-3	17		16	-1	19		20		23	-1	21		189	18.9
9	Chimera	UK	14	-1	16	-1	21		19	-1	17		16	-1	18	-1	22		26	-1	18	-1	187	18.7
10	Pro Team	FI	15	-1	18		20		17	-1	17		15		18		21		26		18	-1	185	18.5
11	Kinetix	AU	14	-1	17		19		19		15	-1	17		18		19		23	-1	16		177	17.7
12	China	CN	12	-1	17		19		17	-1	14	-1	13	-1	16		20		24		15	-1	167	16.7
13	Eros	UK	12	-2	16		20		18		15	-1	13	-2	12	-4	17	-1	22		16	-1	161	16.1
14	eX3MO	IT	13		13	-2	17	-2	13	-4	12	-1	14		13		16	-1	22	-2	14		147	14.7
15	Phoenix XP	US	13		13		17		14		13		12	-1	14		17		18	-1	14		145	14.5
16	Skynamite	DE	13		12		18		16		11	-2	13		13		15	-1	16	-3	16		143	14.3
17	Pajama Pumas	UK	10	-2	12		17		14	-1	13		12		15		16		15	-2	13		137	13.7
18	Fly Girls	US	11		11	-1	15	-1	14		11		12		13		14	-1	16		12		129	12.9
19	Victorious Secret	US	9		11	-1	14		10	-2	11		11		12		16	-1	14		14		122	12.2
20	Alola	UK	9	-1	10	-2	13		10	-1	9	-1	9	-1	9	-1	12	-1	16		11		108	10.8

Grey: All-Male - Pink: All-Female - Yellow: Mixed-Gender

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Chimera and Pro Team at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019 - Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/IPC/OmniSkore!HD

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The next all-male team is in 6th place on the combined leaderboard. Two mixed-gender lineups, SDC Rhythm XP with JaNette Lefkowitz and Airspeed Odyssey with Eliana Rodriguez, and the two best 4-way Women teams (French Weembi Girls - NFTO) finished ahead of Defiance.

A total of 42 competitors in 4-way Open and 4-way Women were male (52.5%), 38 female (47.5%), disregarding the videographers. There was a very tight field of teams with all three combinations between Airspeed Odyssey in 4th place and Pro Team in 10th place.

Finland's national 4-way team was battling with a team that had exactly the same gender combination, British team Chimera. Emilia Sormunen and Eija Suvala represent the female part of the Pro Team, while Sarah Ashworth and Laura Hampton compete for Chimera. The Pro Team has the additional age advantage though, with one of the two world's youngest 4-way competitors in the lineup, 19-year old Kalle Pohjola in the tail slot.

Alban Rumolo is the other 19-year old 4-way competitor in the French national 4-way and 8-way team. The two teenagers were separated by five points in 4-way Open and on the combined leaderboard. The Pro Team was one of the very few teams who finished with a new team record average, despite the slow competition draw.

Chimera was under pressure from the Pro Team while trying to move up the leaderboard in this tight group of teams. The British team copied the 18.7 average of the UK Nationals in August. NFTO, Chimera's target at the world cup, did exactly the same, and both teams maintained scoring level and distance.

Pro Team and Chimera were the only two teams with a 2-2 gender combination. All other mixed teams had three male and one female team members, with JaNette Lefkowitz and SDC Rhythm XP on the top of this group, followed by Eliana Rodriguez and Airspeed Odyssey.

Eliana Rodriguez and Australia's Kinetix member AnnMarie Jarzebowski witnessed the introduction of the 4-way Women category at the FAI World Meet 2001 in Spain and both won medals, Eliana Rodriguez gold with U.S. team Synchronicity, AnnMarie Jarzebowski bronze with Sweden's national team 4Pleasure.

AnnMarie Jarzebowski still competed in 4-way Women for Australia last year on her new home turf and missed another bronze medal by two points. Eliana Rodriguez joined Airspeed after the 4-way Women gold medal in 2001 and won 8-way gold in 2004, then 4-way Open Class gold in 2008.