posted Aug 24th, 2015 - The results of the poll for the competition in 4-way Women at the FAI World Cup 2015 were not a big surprise at all, and the Golden Knights are going into this new battle as the top favorite.

The situation in 8-way is different in many ways. The outcome on the very top of the leaderboard is open, even though the 8-way world champions of 2012 and 2014, the Golden Knights, will compete with a well-trained team and seven reigning world champions of 2014. There is a big question mark behind the performance level of the French 8-way team, which is loaded with former world champions, as well. The Sun Path Products NSL News had provided a comprehensive preview of this expected epic battle on July 18th.

There will probably also be an exciting race for the bronze medals, where Russia's Tanay lineup has to fend off the new Belgian 8-way team Thund8rbirds, with the complete NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Thunder ISR lineups.

Registered 8-way Open: Golden Knights (US), Aerodyne Maubeuge (FR), Tanay (RU), Thund8birds (BE), M8trix (NL), Qatar (QA), The Zoo Magic 8 (IT), Akward Turtles (UK)

The two very promising duels for the medals make the 8-way competition probably the most exciting part of this year's World Cup in Teuge, despite a high-quality 4-way Open Class field.

The expected battles for the FAI medals are not the only interesting parts of the 8-way competition. Eight 8-way teams have signed up for the event, which means that two teams will not make it to the World Cup finals in Round 10.

M8trix, the Dutch national 8-way team, will not have to worry about a slot in the finals after just finishing the Dutch Nationals with a 13.6 average after ten rounds. It's once again a new Dutch record average, which will probably fall again in two weeks. M8trix has improved the team averages at each of the four meets (8.2 - 10.2 - 11.0 - 13.0 - 13.6) following the first one in 2011.

Dutch Nationals 2015		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open Class	H,Q,M,21	17,O,2	F,14,1	7,N,G,10	C,15,P,A	3,12,5	6,4,19	18,13,L	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	Total	Avg
1	M8Trix	14	11	15	13	14	14	15	13	12	15	136	13.6
2	8@work	8	4	7	7	6	7	7	5	3	6	60	6.0

M8trix was happy with the recent performance, which made the team feel confident and relaxed. The 14+ goal at the World Cup seems to be in reach. However, there could be serious competition for M8trix coming from Qatar. The Qatar delegation has resumed the training and competition schedule after a longer break, and the 8-way team posted a 12.4 average at the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship. M8trix member Gary Smith has been coaching the Qatar 8-way team...

The six well trained teams will probably make it impossible for the two pickup teams from Italy and Great Britain to advance to the final round. The Awkward Turtles competed at last year's UK Nationals and will probably get another test on home turf this weekend before traveling to Teuge in the Netherlands.

Zoo Magic 8 is from Italy and does not have a team history in the SKYLEAGUE.COM archives.