posted Jul 11th, 2014 - There has never been a 4-way team from Lithuania in the female category at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving. The field of teams at this year's competition in the Czech Republic will include the SolarFlakes representing Lithuania in 4-way Women.

The SolarFlakes are not new to the Sun Path Products NSL News audience. The story on 10 August 2013 had introduced the team before their first international FAI competition at the World Cup 2013 in Banja Luka.

The team name appeared for the first time on a SKYLEAGUE.COM leaderboard after the ISR Grand Prix 2012 where the SolarFlakes competed in the A Class and finished with a 14.4 average. They came back to the World Challenge 2013 a few months later in the AA Class with an 11.7 average. The Solarflakes did not compete in the female category in Bedford, as they were not trained for the AAA Class dive pool at that time.

World Cup 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Rd. 11	T.	A.
Rank	4-way Women	O,4,H,3	9,17,P	L,1,G,12	7,10,21	16,E,A,15	8,2,B	18,5,Q	F,14,K,N	M,C,D,13	20,J,19	22,11,6	T.	A.
1	French Girls (FR)	21	27	16	18	20	17	17	23	24	20	17	220	20.0
2	Golden Knights (US)	22	25	17	17	19	18	21	20	24	20	17	220	20.0
3	Bodyflight Isis (UK)	19	18	17	14	16	16	16	17	21	16	-	170	17.0
4	Kaizen (UK)	16	21	14	16	15	14	15	18	19	15	-	163	16.3
5	Dubai Asaar Ladies (AE)	15	16	13	12	15	12	13	17	14	14	-	141	14.1
6	Fire (SE)	13	14	10	9	10	11	13	16	15	12	10	133	12.1
7	Infra Red Band (RU)	14	12	13	12	11	10	10	16	14	11	8	131	11.9
8	Seraphim (UK)	14	14	11	13	13	12	11	13	14	10	-	125	12.5
9	Team XX (UK)	13	13	10	10	10	11	11	13	14	-	-	105	11.7
10	SolarFlakes (LT)	8	8	2	7	8	8	4	10	10	6	-	71	7.1

However, the Lithuanian team made plans for the World Cup 2013 and eventually had to tackle the AAA Class dive pool. They tested the challenging AAA Class waters a few weeks before the trip to Banja Luka at their national championships (6.8) and then posted a 7.1 average after the ten rounds at the World Cup 2013.

The SolarFlakes made new plans for the 2014 season, which included the World Championship in August. However, there was a personnel change when Zivile Gudaityte replaced Ruta Mencikovskyte at the beginning of the year in the Center Outside position.

The new team member had only Rookie Class experiences after a year with the Lithuanian 4-way team Equinox in 2012. The SolarFlakes decided again to compete rather in the AA Class competition of the World Challenge 2014 and get used to the first set of 16 blocks with the new lineup.

The situation for the SolarFlakes is now almost exactly the same as in 2013. The new lineup with Center Outside Zivile Gudaityte will face the AAA Class dive pool for the first time at the national championships this month and then again at the World Meet 2014, where they will compete in the same category with several female teams who competed in 4way Women at the World Challenge.

The SolarFlakes completed all ten rounds at the World Cup 2013, which included the European Championships. It will be much more challenging at the World Meet to move on after the first cut (Round 9 - 10 teams) and into the final round (Round 10 - 6 teams).

The Solar Flakes are now in full AAA Class training swing on the weekends in Lithuania. Zivile Gudaityte and her team mates enjoy the challenge and like the new maneuvers of the AAA Class dive pool. The new team member surely hopes that the SolarFlakes will be able to finish with better meet averages than the previous lineup.