posted May 10th, 2014 - The Sun Path Products NSL News explained with the story on 12 February 2014 how the 2014 season would be a building year for the Formation Skydiving competition delegation from Dubai, guided by Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard.

Eliana Rodriguez said that the original plans for the 2014 season had to be changed when it became clear that two members of the 8way lineup would not come back this year. That added to Khalid Abduljalil's broken arm that he has been recovering from.

However, Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard followed through with their plans and brought their teams with the new lineups to the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013 and then to the World Challenge 2014.

Paraclete XP Outdoor 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	18,2,O	D,19,22	G,C,P,10	9,A,L,H	K,16,B,Q	7,4,21	11,15,F	M,3,E,8	6,1,17	20,12,J	Total	Avg
8	Dubai Asaar Black (AE)	13	14	18	23	21	13	13	15	12	12	154	15.4
15	Dubai Asaar Yellow (AE)	8	9	10	13	9	8	11	10	10	8	96	9.6

The first scores for the Dubai teams have been posted, and the Dubai Asaar Ladies added theirs to the leaderboard of the World Challenge after missing the trip to DeLand. They placed themselves between the two Asaar Open Class teams at the indoor meet and even challenged Asaar Black in two rounds seriously.

Eliana Rodriguez followed up with more information for a Sun Path Products NSL News update after returning to Dubai from the first meets of the year.

She said that things took a turn again when they wanted to begin with 8way training. It was supposed to be a brandnew start with new Asaar Yellow members Ahmed Alabdooli and Nasser Aldhaheri. The 8way lineup could make a few jumps before new injuries slowed down the training once again: "We had one guy down due to a hard opening and another one due to a collision in freefall with the other piece. He crashed so hard with the other piece that he got bursitis in his knee."

World Challenge 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	17,18,19	5,16,6	4,N,13	P,F,12,M	J,D,10,K	G,3,O,C	H,22,14	20,2,8	1,21,11	15,7,L	Total	Avg
11	Dubai Asaar Black (AE)	17	19	19	27	24	24	19	15	18	22	204	20.4
6	Dubai Asaar Ladies (AE)	13	16	15	23	20	23	16	17	18	17	178	17.8
35	Dubai Asaar Yellow (AE)	11	11	9	18	12	16	12	13	13	14	129	12.9

That was not all of the bad luck for Dubai's 8way team, as Eliana Rodriguez added in her update: "Another one of our guys was having issues with his wrist, so he also needed some time off. So it's been a challenging month for the team. Unfortunately, we did not get too much of the 8way training we had hoped for, and we are getting tight on time."

She said that the world meet is around the corner, and the team will be off for Ramadan in July: "This only leaves us May, June and the beginning of August for training. We will be training in Dubai, so the days will be short, from 7am to 12pm due to the heat. It's going to be tough!"

Eliana Rodriguez had good news from Dubai, too. She has four new candidates for the near future of the team: "We've been working with them in the tunnel. One guy is going through AFF and the others are working on getting their A-License." The 8way team has currently only seven Emiratis in the lineup and needs one more member. Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard also want a few alternates to build up their skills and be ready to go when needed: "We hope to get six more new guys, still looking for a few more." In the meantime, Craig Girard will continue to fill the 8th slot as he has been doing before.