posted Mar 21st, 2008 - Round 5 was the second time that money was on stake at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008. Performance Designs sponsored this round was $300 cash, and the money would go to the winner after handicap.

Denmark's national 4-way team, Danish Blaze, performed above the team's previously shown level in rounds one to four and was compensated for the hard work to learn the exits from the Pilatus Porter.

Danish Blaze is one of the seven teams that competed in DeLand last weekend and will travel to the United Kingom for next week's World Challenge 2008 at Bodyflight Bedford. Airspeed Odyssey, Perris Fury, Norway's female team Fortitudo and Sequence from Denmark are on the list of teams that have signed up for the tunnel competition at Bodyflight Bedford.

Two of last weekend's Fastrax members, Thomas Hughes and Pete Allum, visit their original homes in the United Kingdom, while Fastrax alternate Steve Hamilton still lives there. This 3-way joins forces with Brian Johnson next week who already competed with XL at last year's World Challenge in Bedford. Satori is also going home to England after a stellar performance in Florida.

Norway's national team in IPC's female category, Fortitudo (Ellen Burchardt, Lise Nansen, Trude Sviggum, Kristine Willadsen, Gudrun Rokne on camera), made the first contact with other teams that will compete in the same category at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving this August in France. The US national team, Fastrax Blue, completed only six rounds and was a good step ahead of the new Norwegian lineup that the NSL News had introduced with the story on 2 January 2008.

Fortitudo was about the same step ahead of the German national team, the Chicas, who competed with the same lineup as in 2007 (Dr. Petra Bärenfänger, Sylvia Maier, Susa Serra, Marion Thomas). The Chicas had to quit after Round 5 since their return flight to Germany was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. The team members were sad that they did not have the opportunity to improve the meet average with the fast sequence of Round 6.

The Norwegian team will meet two other top contenders at the World Challenge 2008 next weekend. UK's national team, Bodyflight Storm, defends the gold medals for the United Kingdom this year. One of the two French candidates for the slot as the national team this year, White and Sea, will show what else France has to offer this year. The other French female lineup, Deep Blue, already posted a very impressive 22.1 average at the windtunnel competition in Paris in February, as the NSL News reported on 26 February 2008.

Airspeed Odyssey posted the highscore for Round 5 before handicap with a 25-pointer. The Arizona team started the jump with the first exit hickup but recovered quickly. France Maubeuge and Fastrax had clean 24-pointers. Russia's Black Cat had 24 points in working time, as well, but lost a point due to a non-judgeable exit formation. The whole field of teams collected a total of 15 penalties in this round, with Teiwaz contributing the highest deduction after three infringements.

The field of teams at the World Challenge 2008 had a little adjustment. The Russian team Ocean 5 had to cancel after facing problems with the visa. Paraclete XP took one of the two open slots after the UK team Innuendo had withdrawn earlier, as well. Bodyflight owner Paul Meyer said that the last open slot can still be filled on a short notice.