posted Apr 16th, 2009 - Airspeed came back with vengeance in Round 5.

The NSL News covered the incredible recovery jump of the reigning 4-way world champions already early in the morning of the second day at the World Challenge 2009. The story on 5 April 2009 explained what had happened at the end of the first event day.

It was a special treat for the audience in Bedford to see how Airspeed all of a sudden picked up the pace when trailing Perris Fury by one point after Round 4. NSL-TV already featured Airspeed's Round 5 from the judging perspective later on the same day, as it was such an incredible event. The on-line audience now has the opportunity to see all videos of the Top 12 and compare directly with Airspeed's outstanding performance.

Round 5 changed the whole competition at the end of Saturday.

Airspeed never looked back from here on and only continued to increase the lead round by round. The 29-pointer came at the perfect time at the end of the first day. It made the dinner and the English beer taste very well and provided more than enough confidence for the remainder of the competition.

Perris Fury's Chris Farina spoke with the NSL News on Sunday morning and explained the situation after Round 5 from Fury's perspective. The Perris team had lost three points in the same round due to infringements and ended up with a 22-pointer, seven points behind Airspeed in this round. The six gained points in Round 4, with Fury's 59 over Airspeed's 53, were just gone like that.

Even 25 points within working time, which were also posted by Hayabusa Defence and XL, would not even be close to Airspeed's 29-pointer in Round 5.

Airspeed completed Block 14 (Bipole - Bipole) on the 5th page, which was accomplished only by France Maubeuge within working time (26), and then still went through the whole sequence of random transitions and into Block 3 (Side Flake Opal - Turf) before the clock stopped.

It was a blow to the rest of the field that was hard to swallow at the end of the day. The NSL News asked the Airspeed members in the interview after the award ceremony how the team prepared for Round 5 and for other situations where a special performance is necessary in a competition jump.

Mark Kirkby explained that there is not much discussion necessary in a situation like that. All team members seem to feel that something special needs to happen, and a silent instinct seems to bring each member to a point of higher alertness and urgency at the right time and at the same time.

It worked out perfectly once again in Round 5 at the World Challenge 2009. Airspeed had re-taken the lead and was up again over Perris Fury, this time by six points. The lead would be 11 points after ten rounds, and Airspeed was 17 - 0. Round 5 was the key and turning point in Bedford.