posted Jan 7th, 2017 - Each competition does not only feature the battles for the top spots and medal positions. The Sun Path Products NSL News has traditionally covered many of the additional duels and mini meets on the leaderboards.

Especially the leaderboards of FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving include many of these special battles, where teams also eagerly represent their countries.

Teams from Mexico competed at three different world meets since 1985, and they had their own very special task at each of them.

They were involved in battles for the second last place at the bottom of the leaderboards. Mexico ended up in 29th and last place at the first appearance in Gap 1995 when the national team was done after Round 4.

Indonesia was the opponent for the 28th place and only two points ahead after Round 4.

FAI World Meet 1995			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	16	26	26	20	18	23	21	18	21	18	207	20.7
2	France	FR	16	25	26	18	17	21	23	17	21	21	205	20.5
3	Touche	DK	15	21	22	18	16	19	18	15	18	17	179	17.9
4	DeLand Norgies	NO	13	23	21	14	14	20	22	15	16	13	171	17.1
5	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	13	19	21	16	16	17	19	15	18	14	168	16.8
6	Russia	RU	14	17	22	13	14	19	20	13	17	16	165	16.5
7	Belgium	BE	13	19	21	12	16	18	14	13	15	15	156	15.6
8	Switzerland	CH	13	21	14	14	14	18	18	11	15	9	147	14.7
9	Daedalus	DE	14	17	13	14	15	18	18	13	15	-	137	15.2
10	Japan	JP	12	19	16	16	13	15	13	11	16	-	131	14.6
11	Sweden	SE	11	18	17	13	13	17	17	11	13	-	130	14.4
11	Monkey Circus	AT	12	15	19	15	11	16	17	12	13	-	130	14.4
13	Spain	ES	11	19	21	13	14	15	14	11	11	-	129	14.3
14	Australia	AU	10	15	16	13	13	12	15	11	16	-	121	13.4
15	Sebastian XL	UK	9	16	16	13	12	12	16	11	13	-	118	13.1
15	Canada	CA	11	13	17	13	12	13	15	11	13	-	118	13.1
17	Netherlands	NL	10	11	14	12	12	12	14	9	-	-	94	11.8
18	Finland	FI	11	13	12	13	7	14	14	8	-	-	92	11.5
19	Croatia	HR	8	15	12	11	11	11	12	8	-	-	88	11.0
20	Hungary	HU	11	8	15	11	9	12	10	9	-	-	85	10.6
21	Italy	IT	10	5	13	11	11	11	14	8	-	-	83	10.4
22	Luxemburg	LU	7	9	9	7	10	11	8	9	-	-	70	8.8
23	New Zealand	NZ	8	10	7	4	9	10	9	8	-	-	65	8.1
24	Yugoslavia	YU	6	3	7	4	5	4	9	6	-	-	44	5.5
25	Ireland	IE	7	6	9	6	0	5	5	5	-	-	43	5.4
26	Israel	IL	5	5	9	6	6	1	6	3	-	-	41	5.1
27	Latvia	LV	5	6	0	6	6	0	7	2	-	-	32	4.0
28	Indonesia	ID	5	3	4	4	2	3	6	2	-	-	29	3.6
29	Mexico	MX	1	8	1	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	14	3.5

MeXtreme competed for Mexico at the FAI Mondial 2016, 21 years after the first Mexican 4-way scores were posted at a world meet.

It was still the same situation with a battle for the 16th place this time, only the opponent was a different one.

H4O from Ireland did not allow MeXtreme to get too close, even though the Mexican 4-way team tied the Irish scores in three rounds. MeXtreme would have even won Round 7 without the three penalties.

The Sun Path Products NSL News had spent a few minutes with four of the five MeXtreme members in Ottawa when the NSL-TV camera recorded a few words with world meet rookies.

Their opponents from Ireland attended a world meet for the first time, as well, even though Irish teams have attended at least twice as many world meets than Mexican teams.

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 Mexican 4-way team of 1997 had the closest finish to the position ahead of the last of 23 teams. Luxemburg was one single point ahead after Round 8, and the 10.5 average is still the highest a Mexican team has posted so far. FAI/IPC still applied the cuts before and after the semifinals, and the Mexican teams of 1995 and 1997 completed only eight rounds. The Mondial 2016 was the first world meet where all teams completed all ten rounds.

MeXtreme could be in a much stronger position in 2018. The team still competed in the AA Class in 2015 and took on the complete FAI/IPC dive pool only after visiting the USPA Nationals in the Intermediate Class. The 9.1 average could easily be turned into a 2-digit number, and the 10.5 average of 1997 would be history.

MeXtreme was already back in training in December, and the team seems to have plans for another world meet. The last place might become history, as well...

FAI World Meet 1997			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way		13,Q,D,9	5,K,F,12	1,14,22	H,M,11,7	A,E,3,G	15,18,3	20,L,23	O,19,4	17,10,J	6,C,21	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	20	18	23	27	15	20	16	21	24	210	21.0
2	France	FR	25	19	17	22	25	16	20	21	20	21	206	20.6
3	DeLand Equanimity	ZA	25	20	16	20	20	15	17	20	21	19	193	19.3
4	Russia	RU	24	18	17	17	23	14	12	19	17	19	180	18.0
5	Sebastian XL	UK	24	17	14	21	19	13	16	19	15	18	176	17.6
6	DeLand Norgies	NO	20	14	12	18	20	12	14	17	16	18	161	16.1
7	Switzerland	CH	21	15	13	17	18	13	14	16	16	16	159	15.9
8	Australia	AU	17	17	14	17	19	10	14	17	17	16	158	15.8
9	Spain	ES	21	16	13	13	19	13	14	16	18	14	157	15.7
10	Daedalus	DE	19	14	13	17	20	12	12	16	15	17	155	15.5
11	Sweden	SE	19	11	12	16	18	11	13	17	16	-	133	14.8
12	Japan	JP	19	13	11	15	19	11	11	17	14	-	130	14.4
13	Italy	IT	19	11	11	15	18	11	12	14	12	-	123	13.7
14	Monkey Circus	AT	19	13	11	8	16	11	14	17	13	-	122	13.6
14	Finland	FI	19	12	13	13	16	12	10	16	11	-	122	13.6
16	Belgium	BE	18	13	12	14	14	10	13	14	11	-	119	13.2
17	Hungary	HU	15	12	11	14	17	9	10	14	15	-	117	13.0
18	Canada	CA	18	12	12	10	15	9	7	15	13	-	111	12.3
19	Netherlands	NL	17	11	10	9	15	9	12	12	13	-	108	12.0
20	Croatia	HR	17	11	10	11	15	9	9	9	-	-	91	11.4
21	Brazil	BR	14	8	11	14	11	9	9	13	-	-	89	11.1
22	Luxemburg	LU	12	10	10	11	11	8	10	13	-	-	85	10.6
23	Mexico	MX	13	9	9	11	12	8	10	12	-	-	84	10.5