posted Aug 23rd, 2023 - It took a while on Wednesday until the weather situation at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2023 improved enough to resume the competition. The 4-way teams were finally released for the day, and the 8-way teams were back in action in the afternoon. The 8-way competition will probably be ahead of 4-way at the end of the day.

The NSL News used the available time on Wednesday morning to discuss the first part of the competition in a new NSL Coaches Corner conversation with Solly Williams, Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen. Together they are probably looking at half of the 4-way field of teams that they have been somehow connected with.

They are at Skydive Voss this time to work with the teams that they have currently been coaching. Solly Williams is mostly busy with U.S. team SDC Rhythm XP and Germany's Airbus Illertissen Oceanside, while he is still keeping his eyes on Agera, the Norwegian national team in 4-way Open.

Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen are both coaching the new lineups of the 4-way teams from Qatar, Cheetahs and Lions, while Andy Grauwels tries to bring the Qatar Tigers to the top of the leaderboard. The Tigers are currently tied with his former Belgian world champion team mates of NMP PCH HayaBusa.

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NSL Coaches Corner with Solly Williams - Gary Smith - Luc Verstrepen

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Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen had also internal information of their former Belgian team, with Luc Verstrepen as the Inside Center and Gary Smith as the coach in previous years. They are still closely connected with the HayaBusa members and provided some details of the HayaBusa situation in Norway.

The Belgians arrived late on Tuesday at Voss and barely squeezed in one training jump before the meet briefing and the competition draw took place just a few minutes after their landing. They were still missing some baggage, including jumping equipment. Tail Jeroen Nollet had to borrow parachute, jumpsuit and helmet from Luc Verstrepen, not only for the training jump. He performed the first three competition rounds with the borrowed equipment.

The whole team needed a few rounds to get on track, and Round 3 was finally on the performance level that they are used to at the moment. The three coaches evaluated mostly the current situation of the Top 10 positions, which took more than enough time.

The 8-way competition started with a very strong statement of the undisputed top contender, U.S. team GKXP8. The 27-pointer for Round 1 exceeded even their own expectations and the prediction of closely connected 8-way experts. Arizona Airspeed and XPG4 distanced themselves already clearly from the field in their respective events. GKXP8 won the first round by nine points, which is also new in Formation Skydiving history. The U.S. 8-way team is on the way to new scoring heights, and is also a part of the coming U.S. Sweep in Formation Skydiving.

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NSL-TV Unfiltered - GKXP8 Round 1 at the 23rd FAI World Cup of Formation Skydiving - Video footage courtesy of FAI/ISC

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