posted Jun 12th, 2007 - Livio Piccolo has been flying the Point position for Italy's national 4-way team Sinapsi PD for several years.

His team won the bronze medals at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 in Germany and then decided to take a break throughout the 2007 season.

Sara Sacchet was present at last year's World Meet in Germany, as well. She was working as the Chief Judge for Formation Skydiving competition.

Sara Sacchet is also the Italian Delegate at FAI's International Parachuting Commission (IPC) and witnessed her national team's success on site.

Livio Piccolo and Sara Sacchet recently joined forces to organize a 4-way competition in Italy, which took place on the June 2 weekend.

Dive pools and competition draw have not been synchronized yet between the NSL/ESL network and Italy.

However, Sara Sacchet provided the scores and meet information for the NSL News, and she currently evaluates the possibility of joining the 4-way network soon.

She mentioned that Sinapi PD member Livio Piccolo used his "non-competing period" to organize the event in Fano, Italy, which was called the "4-way Shake Competition".

She added that the hosting skydiving center is beautiful and well equipped. The competition jumps were made from a Pilatus Porter with a right-hand door.

The weather in Italy was not perfect that weekend. However, the 6-round meet was completed in time on Saturday, and the Pilatus Porter had flown 27 loads. The Italian teams and competitors could use the Saturday evening for the award ceremony and a party with lots of original Italian red wine.

The 4-way competition in Fano was not the first event this year were Italian scores were posted. The Spin Team had already attended the AZSL Valentine's Meet 2007 and posted a 13.9 average in February. The videos of the meet in Eloy are still available on NSL-TV. The Spin Team won Livio Piccolo's "4-way Shake" on June 2 and improved the team's meet average to 15.8 after six rounds.

Vertigo in 2nd place was already on the NSL leaderboard earlier this year, as well. The Italian team attended the World Challenge 2007 at Bodyflight Bedford and posted a 17.0 average after the 10-round in-door competition. The 14.7 out-door average on June 2 seems to reflect the realistic balance between tunnel competition and out-door competition, as other teams have shown in the meantime.

Organizer Livio Piccolo was actually supposed to compete at the World Challenge 2007, as well, and only missed the event due to an illness that didn't allow him to do any physical activities at that time. Team XL, with his Sinapsi PD teammate Pete Allum, Steve Hamilton and John McIver had already made plans with Livio Piccolo in the Point position. Former Airspeed Odyssey member Brian Johnson filled the slot for XL when Livio Piccolo had to cancel.

The 4-way Shake's competition draw for the Intermediate Class was very different compared to the dive pools of the NSL competition classes. The 3-point or 4-point sequences included blocks with mirror-images and/or memory (Blocks 5 and 10). Three teams competed in this competition class, and team Next won with a 7.5 average.

The Italian Beginner's Class challenged the participants with a sequence of five Random Formations. One team competed in this class, and the Sky Jokers finished with a 9.3 average after six rounds.

The 4-way line-up of Italy's Ex3mo 8-way team did not compete at the 4-way Shake on June 2. Ex3mo Bodyflight had posted a 19.0 average at the World Challenge 2007 and is probably the strongest AAA Class team in Italy this year. The Italian national championship of 2007 is scheduled for August 25, and the NSL News will follow up with information.

Livio Piccolo and Sinapsi PD will continue with the team's hibernation and only observe the 4-way competition in Italy this year. The team members have not talked yet of any plans for the future. However, there is a good chance that the 2006 bronze medal winner may come back for the 2008 season, as Sara Sacchet indicated earlier this year.

The Italian top judge and IPC Delegate will continue to attend 4-way meets as a judge in the meantime. Her next event on the judging agenda is the World Cup 2008 in August in Russia.