posted Nov 7th, 2016 - The Sun Path Products NSL News is going back to the coverage of the FAI Mondial 2016. There is still video footage that has not been used yet and deserves attention.

The World Championship of Formation Skydiving always brings together teams from all parts of the skydiving world and from many different performance levels. The Olympic idea is the foundation for the competition format, and the FAI/IPC has recently made an adjustment according to this idea, by allowing all teams to complete ten rounds.

There is also always a colorful and interesting mixture of different experience levels. Competition veterans and rookies compete in the same category and post their scores on the same leaderboard. The Sun Path Products NSL News was interested in feedback from competitors who attended a World Championship of Formation Skydiving for the first time and recorded a few interviews during the competition.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	24	25	35	26	19	22	27	39	23	22	262	26.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	23	31	26	18	22	27	40	23	23	254	25.4
3	France	FR	21	20	30	21	18	21	27	39	21	20	238	23.8
4	Black Cat	RU	22	20	30	24	17	21	24	33	21	19	231	23.1
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	21	20	30	24	17	20	23	36	17	18	226	22.6
6	Evolution	CA	20	18	29	24	16	18	23	32	18	16	214	21.4
7	Satori XL	UK	18	19	27	24	16	18	22	30	18	18	210	21.0
8	Airbus	DE	16	18	29	19	15	18	22	29	14	19	199	19.9
9	Savolo	ZA	15	15	25	19	14	15	16	28	17	15	179	17.9
10	Final Fire	AT	16	15	25	17	12	16	18	29	17	13	178	17.8
11	Ex3mo	IT	18	15	21	18	13	14	19	25	17	14	174	17.4
12	Rotor Out	AU	16	16	24	14	13	16	18	22	14	13	166	16.6
13	Pangaea	DK	15	16	24	19	11	13	16	25	12	13	164	16.4
14	China	CN	14	15	21	15	12	11	16	24	12	12	152	15.2
15	M4trix	NL	13	13	16	11	11	12	14	20	12	12	134	13.4
16	H4O	IE	13	13	17	8	9	12	9	15	10	10	116	11.6
17	MeXtreme	MX	8	8	13	8	9	9	9	12	8	7	91	9.1

The group of world meet rookies alone offers a variety of different combinations. There are national teams with complete lineups who represent their country for the first time, while others have a mixture of team members with previous world meet experiences and rookies.

The Sun Path Products NSL News met with MeXtreme members in Tent City who competed for Mexico in the 4-way Open Class for the first time. In fact, it was also the first time in the modern era of Formation Skydiving competition (since 1985) that Mexico was represented at the FAI World Championship.

The H4O members from Ireland were also new at a world championship. Ireland had attended earlier world meets, the last one in Dubai 2012. However, the lineups and team names were different ones. H4O placed right in front of the rookies from Mexico.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
R.	4-way Women		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	21	21	30	20	17	19	24	35	20	17	224	22.4
2	French Girls	FR	21	18	30	23	17	18	24	34	18	14	217	21.7
3	NFTO	UK	17	15	21	19	13	16	18	26	17	13	175	17.5
4	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	18	15	19	16	14	16	17	25	17	14	171	17.1
5	Les Stunts	BE	15	14	20	16	11	13	16	24	15	13	157	15.7
6	Bellatrix	AU	13	12	20	16	12	13	15	22	13	14	150	15.0
7	Skymix	DE	13	11	15	15	12	13	14	23	12	12	140	14.0
8	No Mercy	PL	14	14	19	13	9	11	12	19	14	11	136	13.6
9	Infra Red Band	RU	15	12	16	13	9	11	13	17	14	10	130	13.0
10	CZ Ladies	CZ	11	11	14	13	9	10	12	19	9	10	118	11.8
11	Valkyria	DK	10	8	16	10	9	10	11	17	12	10	113	11.3

The Sun Path Products NSL News found two other teams with complete rookie lineups, this time in 4-way Women. Germany's Skymix combination of two AtomiX YUU and two Skyfall members finished as the best rookie team and ahead of more experienced lineups. The two AtomiX members (Andrea Kleinschmidt, Janine Tillenburg) were planning to come back in the 4-way Open Class next time, which has now changed, as the Sun Path Products NSL News reported on October 30th.

The four Valkyria members from Denmark collected their first world meet experiences at the bottom of the 4-way Women leaderboard. Videographer Anders Krabbenhoeft could not do much more than he did to score higher, despite his previous world meet experience with the VAF Warriors.

Last and not least, there was another world meet rookie who is also planning to compete in the Open Class next time. The story of SDC Rhythm XP member JaNette Lefkowitz has been covered extensively by the Sun Path Products NSL News, and she had a few words of her own first experiences, as well...