posted Apr 22nd, 2021 - The Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021 is only a few days away from adding more scores and videos to the leaderboard. Especially the 8-way competition is showing an extremely interesting situation. All four 8-way medal contenders for the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August have performed the ten Shamrock rounds, and the results will offer a preview of the world meet, little over three months before Round 1 at the live event in Russia.

The scores and videos for the first four rounds have been available for a while. Russia's Tanay 8-way team is finishing up the meet rounds this week in Dubai, together with AZXP8 at Skydive Arizona. The InTime judging panel of the Shamrock Showdown will get to work very soon and post the next batch of scores and videos.

The 8-way event is not only promising to become the most exciting competition in the history of Formation Skydiving competition due to the very tight situation between four medal contenders. The 8-way teams from the United States, Russia and Qatar won the three sets of medals in Australia 2018, and France is back with an 8-way lineup that has the lead at the Shamrock Showdown Cloud after Round 4.

The 8-way competition is also featuring some of the most experienced and most successful Formation Skydiving competitors in the history of the sport, who are once again getting ready for a serious battle for the top spot in the world.

---

Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way AAA/Open		1,J,3		Q,K,D,H,L		F,B,C,22		18,E,21		M,5,10		4,G,2		15,8,11		16,19,O		7,P,14		9,12,20		N,17,A,6		Total	Avg
1	France	FR	30	-2	25		28		19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		102	25.5
2	Airspeed XP8	US	28	-2	23	-3	24	-1	19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		94	23.5
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	23	-3	19	-2	21	-1	15		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		78	19.5
4	Rhythm 8	US	14	-1	13	-1	14	-1	9		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		50	12.5
5	Sandbaggers	US	8		5		7		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		20	6.7
6	Tanay 8	RU	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-	-

---

France - AZXP8 - Qatar Falcons with Rounds 1 - 4 of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021

---

The most exciting duel is probably the one between Mathieu Bernier for France and Kirk Verner for AZXP8.

They are the only Formation Skydiving competitors in the field who have both won FAI gold medals in 4-way and in 8-way at world championships.

Kirk Verner started with 4-way gold medals for Arizona Airspeed in 1995 and 1997 before he followed up with 8-way gold in 1999 and 2004. He has not competed again actively at an outdoor world meet ever since. However, he is also still the reigning indoor world champion with XP8 at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019.

Mathieu Bernier won his gold medals in the reverse order. He started with two 8-way gold medals in 2006 and 2008 before he became the one and only Formation Skydiving competitor in the history of the sport winning two gold medals at the same world meet.

Kirk Verner planned the pursuit of new FAI 8-way outdoor gold medals carefully and successfully after winning the indoor title in 2019. XP8 qualified at the USPA Nationals 2019 and recruited the AZXP8 lineup for the ultimate goal at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020.

---

FAI World Meet 2004			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		B,P,C,18	9,15,16	K,11,19	E,F,7,5	A,J,21,12	6,4,10	17,Q,L,1	H,14,3	13,22,O	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	20	23	16	17	19	20	19	21	17	172	19.1
2	Maubeuge	FR	21	19	16	16	20	20	19	20	18	169	18.8
3	Evolution Pro	RU	18	20	17	16	18	19	20	20	19	167	18.6
4	Remscheid	DE	15	17	13	11	14	16	12	14	14	126	14.0
5	Ex3mo	IT	12	15	14	11	15	16	13	15	14	125	13.9
6	Australia	AU	10	12	9	9	9	9	10	11	9	88	9.8
7	South Africa	ZA	12	10	6	6	9	11	9	10	10	83	9.2
8	Austria	AT	10	10	9	9	8	10	9	9	8	82	9.1
9	Great Britain	UK	10	6	9	9	8	9	8	7	9	75	8.3
10	Japan	JP	9	6	9	6	5	9	7	5	7	63	7.0

---

Mathieu Bernier stumbled into his 8-way slot with the current French national 8-way team. He has been in charge for the lineups of the national teams as the national coach, and he made plans to pursue new double-gold (8-way and 4-way Women), as the NSL News reported on 13 October 2019.

He needed to make an adjustment for the 8-way lineup when 4-way Women world champion of 2018, Clementine Le Bohec, did not continue after the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019. He asked Pamela Lissajoux to come back for the 4-way Women team, and he stepped in for the 8-way team, first only as a substitute, then as a full member since 2020.

Kirk Verner and Mathieu Bernier know each other very well after the many years in the sport. However, they have been direct opponents only twice at world meets so far. Kirk Verner had already collected his two 4-way gold medals and the first 8-way world title before Mathieu Bernier was selected for the French national teams.

Then they posted scores on the same leaderboard for the first time at the 8-way competition of the FAI World Meet 2004. It was a 9-round battle in Rijeka that Kirk Verner won with Arizona Airspeed by three points.

---

FAI World Meet 2006			1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		8,O,Q,F	16,15,9	4,J,6	19,20,D	7,5,1	10,12,A	Total	Avg
1	Maubeuge NPC	FR	18	25	26	18	18	18	123	20.5
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	18	23	24	18	17	19	119	19.8
3	R.T. Evolution Pro	RU	16	19	23	15	15	16	104	17.3
4	Ex3mo	IT	12	19	19	14	13	12	89	14.8
5	Remscheid	DE	14	17	16	12	12	14	85	14.2
6	Connextion	UK	11	15	14	9	8	11	68	11.3
7	Australia	AU	11	13	13	11	8	10	66	11.0
8	Belgium	BE	7	11	9	8	7	8	50	8.3
8	South Africa	ZA	8	11	10	8	7	6	50	8.3

---

The French 8-way team was back with exactly the same lineup two years later in Germany, while Kirk Verner had a new Airspeed lineup. This time, Mathieu Bernier won by four points after six rounds, and he defended the title successfully in Maubeuge 2008, where Kirk Verner was the alternate for the U.S. team.

14 years after their last outdoor duel in Germany 2006, Mathieu Bernier and Kirk Verner were back on the same leaderboard, the 8-way competition of the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020. Kirk Verner won this 10-round cloud competition by two points, while Mathieu Bernier currently leads the Shamrock Showdown Cloud by eight points after four rounds. They are now tied in their personal duel, and the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 could become the tie-breaker event.

It is an additional interesting aspect of the 8-way duel between Kirk Verner and Mathieu Bernier that there will be a third Formation Skydiving competitor in Tanay who has won FAI gold medals in 4-way and 8-way both. Jeremie Rollett won 8-way gold together with Mathieu Bernier in 2006 and 2008 and then added 4-way gold in Menzelinsk 2010, once again together with the current French national coach.

Jeremie Rollett is now the 8-way coach for the Qatar Falcons who are the reigning 8-way bronze medalists of Australia 2018. He will do the best he can to interfere with Mathieu Bernier's and Kirk Verner's plans to add another gold medal to their collections.