NFTO Skydiving Win Silver at World Championships

Building on their UK National Championships success , the British 4-way female team achieved their main skydiving goal of 2018 – A fantastic World Silver Medal in the Female 4-way Formation Skydiving.

Battling in a week of difficult weather and with some challenging jumps, they gained another 20+ average score, proudly achieving one step higher on the podium from their previous best of Bronze from Chicago in 2016 –  and crucially, closer to their French rivals! The Level Peaks owned NFTO brand has been sponsoring the girls since 2014 and they have grown into a world-class skydiving team.

They put their heart and soul into their training this year with the objective of bettering the bronze medal from Chicago. After winning the UK Nationals by a single point back in August, they felt confident of a podium position. It was clear that the medal positions for gold were going to be the French girls and the British for silver. NFTO took a clear 3 point average lead over the rest of the field which had 3 teams fighting it out for bronze. This makes it their 3rd competition in a row where they have scored over a 20 average and not many have made it that far.

Earlier this year at the British Championships they surpassed their best average score from last July with a a 20.6 over 9 rounds at the British Skydiving Nationals, on home turf at Skydive Hibaldstow.  This made them British National Champions, in both the female AND open (mixed) category!

We’re excited to see how the girls perform next year – we’re confident more medals are on the horizon. Wishing you all good luck for 2019 from everyone at Level Peaks.

Formation Skydiving Explained

4-way formation skydiving is a highly technical and physically demanding sport when you reach higher levels. Each team consists of four skydivers who perform the formations and one aerial camera person who accompanies the performers on every dive to record the jump for judging purposes.

How does it work?

Competitions at national and international level consist of 10 jumps, with a sequence of five to six predetermined formations performed on each dive. At the start of the competition the judges pick the formations to be performed on each dive from a set pool of 38 formations. Then on each dive the competitors have 35 seconds (starting from the moment they leave the aircraft) to complete the set sequence of formations as many times as possible. At the end of the dive the team separates to safely deploy their parachutes.

How is it judged?

The jumps are judged on the video footage provided by the camera person. The team scores 1 point for every correct formation completed in the correct sequence within the allotted time. The winning team is the one that performs the most formations over the course of the competition. There are no points awarded for style – a point is awarded if each team member has the correct hand-hold (known as a ‘grip’) in a formation and, for some formations, completes a set move within a formation.

At national level there is no separate competition for all female teams. However, at world class level all-female teams (not including the camera person) have their own category. The female teams complete exactly the same sequence of formations as the ‘open’ teams. In order to qualify as a country’s all-female team, the team must be the top all-female team at the National Championships.

Learn more about formation skydiving and the girls on their website: nftoskydiving.com