posted Jan 1st, 2016 - The A Class competition at the Clash of Champions 2015 was very well attended, with an even higher number of participating teams than in the AA Class (11 - 8).

The A Class was introduced by the National Skydiving League in 2002, together with the new Rookie Class.

Both categories brought 4-way competition closer to the grass root level of Formation Skydiving competition and made it easier to learn and master the complete FAI/IPC dive pool.

The Rookie Class dive pool includes only the 16 random formations (A - Q). The A Class then brings the first eight blocks to the teams who grow out of the Rookie Class.

The sequences are still offering plenty of individual flying opportunities, while personal and team skills are in development. Blocks 7 and 9 require individual turns on place, and the other six blocks (2,4,6,8,19,21) are bringing the first piece-flying maneuvers to the beginners in the sport.

The ten A Class sequences at Inflight Dubai included all eight blocks and two sequences with only random formations. Block 21 in Round 10 was drawn a second time when the A Class dive pool was exhausted after the two random formations in the last round (F,A).

The trained teams are well prepared for sequences with only random formations if they went through the Rookie Class at the very 4-way beginnings. The A Class winner Flying Circus from the Czech Republic started in the Rookie Class at the September meet of the European Tunnel League (ETL) 2014 at the Hurricane Factory with a 13.4 average and attended a total of eight meets in this category until moving up into the A Class at the September 2015 meet, one year later.

In addition, the three monthly Rookie Class sequences of the Indoor Cloud League offered them additional opportunities to learn and get familiar with the Rookie Class dive pool.

Clash of Champions 2015			Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 9	Rd 10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		K,L,19	6,4	N,7	D,2	O,M,B	P,9	E,21	G,Q,H	C,J,8	F,A,21	Total	Avg
1	Flying Circus	CZ	19	13	20	16	48	24	19	25	16	17	217	21.7
2	Amnesya RW4 Team	IT	17	15	19	13	37	24	17	23	18	21	204	20.4
3	Skyblockers Singapore	SG	16	17	19	16	33	14	17	25	14	23	194	19.4
4	Made in USSR	RU	12	13	17	13	31	19	14	20	15	14	168	16.8
5	Flatnamic	AE	12	11	12	11	24	20	12	21	12	15	150	15.0
6	Aerokart Ak'demie	FR	13	10	13	9	13	12	12	15	12	14	123	12.3
7	A Team	SG	8	10	12	11	19	15	14	11	8	14	122	12.2
8	Blue Phenix	FR	8	7	6	10	23	15	12	14	12	12	119	11.9
9	Alate	AE	9	10	10	8	17	17	9	13	11	11	115	11.5
10	Hardcore Hand Holders	AE	2	4	6	4	10	3	5	3	6	3	46	4.6
11	Last Minute	FR	2	4	6	2	7	2	3	3	3	3	35	3.5

It was no surprise that Flying Circus knew well how to deal with a sequence of three random formations at the Clash of Champions, and the 48-pointer in Round 5 created a distance to the other A Class top contenders that was more than enough to win the meet, even though Amnesya from Italy and Skyblockers from Singapore challenged the Czech team in most of the other nine rounds.

It was a real A Class world meet, as the eleven teams came from seven different countries. The A Class was also the only category where two junior teams challenged each other, the Skyblockers and Aerokart's third Ak'demie lineup. The Singapore juniors won the bronze medals, and the French A Class juniors finished in 6th place. French Ak'demie coaches Francoise Simons, Amelie Tirman and Marin Ferre had one junior lineup in each of the three 4-way categories at the Clash of Champions.

With the French juniors competing in all three categories, each 4-way leaderboard in Dubai included a colorful mixture of lineups with all age groups, genders and relationships, which no other sport has to offer...