posted Nov 22nd, 2016 - The Sun Path Products NSL News reported on September 15th live from the FAI Mondial 2016 how Evolution's 4-way gamble worked out successfully with the first Canadian silver medals at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving.

Evolution was ready to accept a finish without medals in 4-way Open after the 3rd in Prostejov 2014 after little training with world meet open class rookie Jean-Christophe Ouimet in the point slot. JC Ouimet was in Evolution's 4-way VFS lineup before and won a bronze medal in Prostejov, where Katie Woods placed 3rd for Canada in 4-way Open.

The three Lemay brothers (Martin, Vincent, Benoit) then decided to continue with JC Ouimet in both events, and the Mondial 2016 was his first world meet in 4-way Open. Martin and Vincent Lemay have competed for Canada at each world meet since 2006, and Benoit joined them in 2008. Father Michel Lemay competed with his sons between 2006 and 2012.

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

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS		L,15,7	6,D,3	16,B,8	K,G,12,I	N,14,E,M	J,2,1	H,10,F,17	C,A,11,13	Total	Avg
1	SDC Core	US	19	21	19	19	20	30	18	22	168	21.0
2	Evolution	CA	17	15	23	18	14	29	17	18	151	18.9
3	Transfert	FR	19	14	21	16	18	29	13	18	148	18.5
4	Vertical Flystation	RU	12	11	12	11	13	19	13	17	108	13.5
5	Element	BE	12	10	16	11	12	21	8	16	106	13.3
5	Focus	AU	11	8	15	10	14	24	10	14	106	13.3
7	Blue Pelican	NO	12	9	19	12	12	22	7	12	105	13.1
8	Omni 99	UK	7	5	9	9	8	15	4	12	69	8.6

The 4-way VFS event cannot look back at a history like the other three Formation Skydiving disciplines that the Sun Path Products NSL News recently featured. 4-way and 8-way Open just had their 30-year anniversary, and female competitors have had their own leaderboard in 4-way Women for 15 years by now.

4-way VFS was added to the FAI/IPC world meet agenda for the first time in Menzelinsk 2010, and France collected the first three sets of gold medals in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Then U.S. team SDC Core interfered with the French VFS dominance and won the first VFS world meet gold medals for the U.S. delegation this year.

France had to settle for bronze after a tough 3-point battle for the 2nd place with the same Evolution lineup that competed in 4-way Open at the same event.

FAI World Meet 2008			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	Total	Avg
1	Airspeed Odyssey	US	30	32	24	16	29	21	28	15	195	24.4
2	Maubeuge	FR	28	30	23	17	27	23	28	18	194	24.3
3	HayaBusa Defence	BE	27	33	23	17	27	22	25	17	191	23.9
4	Sky Panthers	RU	28	30	22	16	28	20	27	17	188	23.5
5	Arcteryx	NO	27	29	21	17	25	21	26	14	180	22.5
6	Evolution	CA	25	27	22	17	24	18	26	16	175	21.9

The three Lemay brothers had collected two sets of bronze medals in Prostejov 2014, which became the first time in the short history of VFS that competitors won medals in both 4-way Formation Skydiving disciplines at the world championships.

Evolution was still considered one of the medal contenders in 4-way Open in the run-up to the FAI Mondial 2016, even though the team did not train much in this event at all. It might have been surprising for the Canadians and for the audience that Evolution was not even close to the medal rankings in this event.

The competition by the well trained 4-way Open Class specialists was much too strong, and Evolution eventually ended up in 6th place. It was the same placement that Evolution ended up with at the FAI World Meet 2008, which was also the first world meet where the three Lemay brothers competed together. Then they placed 5th in 2010, 4th in 2012 and 3rd in 2014. Now they gave up the bronze medal position in 4-way Open and won their first silver in VFS. The new videos show how...