posted Sep 16th, 2018 - The NSL News mentioned in a preview of the USPA Nationals 2018 on 9 September that "Arizona Airspeed lineups could win gold and bronze medals this year", which became a possibility when the Golden Knights returned to their headquarters in North Carolina due to the Hurricane Florence threat.

It turned out to be a correct evaluation of the situation in 4-way Open, as Arizona Airspeed won the gold medals, and Airspeed Odyssey finished 3rd at Chicagoland Skydiving Center.

The current Arizona Airspeed lineup (Niklas Hemlin, Thiago Gomes, Mikhail Markine, Ari Perelman, David French on camera) won the 12th consecutive title since 2007 for the franchise without any troubles and are now aiming for the top spot at the upcoming FAI World Meet 2018. DeLand Groove, successor of the 2006 world champions DeLand Fire, was the last team that won USPA gold medals before Airspeed took over in 2007.

None of the current Airspeed members were in the lineup that took the U.S. 4-way reigns back to Arizona in 2007. In fact, it was almost the complete Airspeed Odyssey lineup at Chicagoland last week who won the 2007 title, the first one in the running 12-year streak.

USPA Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	J,19,K,22	P,13,A,E	H,G,Q,B,21	9,2,L	C,14,4	O,16,3	1,15,10	M,20,11	F,D,18,6	5,12,17	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	23	29	34	28	23	24	19	24	26	25	255	25.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	20	25	33	26	20	18	17	21	23	20	223	22.3
3	Airspeed Odyssey	20	25	28	22	18	20	17	19	20	17	206	20.6
4	Defiance	19	23	25	21	18	21	15	21	21	19	203	20.3
5	Ranch 2nd Generation	17	22	20	22	17	18	15	17	21	19	188	18.8
6	Spaceland Lite	15	19	24	19	16	18	12	17	17	14	171	17.1
7	Phoenix XP	17	17	21	18	13	17	12	16	16	14	161	16.1
8	Perris Force	12	11	21	17	13	13	12	17	14	14	144	14.4
9	Spaceland Dallas 350	17	0	17	17	13	16	13	14	20	16	143	14.3
10	Victorious Secret	11	13	16	12	10	9	9	12	13	10	115	11.5
11	SNE Fly Girls	8	8	10	12	9	11	9	9	8	8	92	9.2
12	Spaceland Heatwave	9	11	11	6	6	9	7	7	9	9	84	8.4

Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard and Andy Delk had Mark Kirkby in their Odyssey 2007 lineup, which was formed in 2005 and succeeded Airspeed Vertical as the signature team. Brian Johnson was in the original Odyssey lineup of 2005 and 2006, which had a reunion comeback last year and won the bronze medals last week.

The first Odyssey lineup won bronze medals at the USPA Nationals in 2005 and 2006 before the 2007 lineup with Mark Kirkby in the tail slot launched the 12-year winning streak. The same Airspeed Odyssey lineup then won the FAI gold medals a year later and silver in 2010.

It was the third set of bronze medals that the same 2005/2006 lineup won last week, after an 11-year break and a 4th place at the comeback event last year.

Last week's USPA gold and bronze medal positions for Arizona Airspeed was also the first time since 2001 that two Airspeed lineups took two sets of USPA medals back to Arizona. Airspeed Vertical won in 2001 and Airspeed Zulu placed 3rd. Craig Girard was in the Vertical lineup that had won the FAI gold medals the same year (Mark Kirkby, John Eagle, Neal Houston). Airspeed 4-way teams have won USPA 4-way gold and silver twice in 1997 and 1999, each time with Craig Girard leading the second teams (Vortex - Purple).

This year, Craig Girard did not win in 4-way or 8-way and will not compete at the world meet. However, he will be in Australia as the coach for the Russian 8-way team from Tanay, and he plans to put some pressure on the Golden Knights.

The current Airspeed lineup plans to do the same in 4-way Open, where NMP PCH HayaBusa is the top favorite for the gold medals. The 4-way competition at the USPA Nationals was supposed to be the last serious test before the trip to Australia, and it turned out be different than expected.

Airspeed is always looking for a competitive situation to get the best out of the team's potential. This year, it was as easy as never before to win the USPA gold medals. The 32-point difference was the largest winning margin in the history of USPA Nationals. SDC Rhythm XP had substitute Rob Radez in the lineup, the Golden Knights were not present, and Airspeed Odyssey were glad to win the bronze medals.

Airspeed can expect all the pressure they want at the world meet and save the best for the last meet this year...