posted Apr 11th, 2008 - The race between XL and Airspeed Odyssey and Hayabusa Defence's first meet attendance in 2008 were surely not the only exciting aspects of the World Challenge 2008. There were several other hot spots in the 39-team field, and the NSL News will try to get to all of them, step by step.

In fact, the competition for the 3rd place and £1,500 was just as thrilling as and almost identical with the race for the top spot. Perris Fury and Norway's national 4-way team Arcteryx battled with each other throughout the whole competition and pushed themselves even past the world-class team from Belgium.

Neither Fury nor Arcteryx was ever able to create a lead of more than two points. The Perris team won three rounds, Arcteryx won three rounds, and both teams tied their scores in four rounds. Fury had a 1-point advantage going into the last round of the competition and defended the 3rd place successfully after another tie.

The Perris team won this race with the 43-pointer in Round 7, the fastest sequence of the 10-round meet. Arcteryx members said that they had a good round, as well. However, the 39-pointer lost too much ground, and Arcteryx could not make up for it in the remaining three rounds.

The US team and the team from Norway continued in Bedford with their moves going forward. Arcteryx is still pushing the pace on the team's path toward a set of medals at this year's World Championship of Formation Skydiving. The results at the World Challenge 2008 must be very encouraging since they provide evidence for the significant progression between 2007 and 2008.

Perris Fury looks more solid and confident at each competition the teams attends. The growing amount of meet experience seems to work well for the Perris team. It is still very difficult for Fury to reduce the distance to the best US team, Airspeed Odyssey, which doesn't slow down either. However, Perris Fury is still on the right track.

The competition for the 3rd place and the £1,500 cash was so close that CamScore's Andrew Mansfield decided to split the DZ-TV screen for the judging of Round 10, as well. Both teams could be viewed at the same time.

NSL-TV did not capture these pictures but is able to offer more exciting footage directly from the flying chamber. The NSL News followed Arcteryx and Fury on their way to Round 10 and filmed their performances from the flying level. The links below the images connect to these video files.

CamScore also provides the view from the judging perspective of Round 10. It is once again very interesting to view the performances first from the eagle's view and then from the flying level, or vice versa.

Both teams don't have much of a break after the World Challenge 2008. Perris Fury is working with some of the project teams this weekend. The season opener of the California Skydiving League takes place at Skydive Elsinore, and the Perris Fury members will compete with three of their 4-way teams (Perris Jimani, Perris Momentum, Perris 4Shock).

Arcteryx has the team's first outdoor competition of the 2008 season on the agenda next weekend. The second meet of the Florida Skydiving League is hosted once again by Skydive DeLand and has the Pilatus Porter available as the jump plane for the national teams.

Arcteryx will have the opportunity to meet a world-class team in DeLand after missing the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008. Canada's LeMay family will attend Evolution's third outdoor competition this year and jump ahead of the busiest team so far, Airspeed Odyssey. The US national team has attended two outdoor meets and the windtunnel competition at Bodyflight Bedford so far.