posted Jul 2nd, 2008 - Round 4 of the oudoor meet at the Paraclete XP Money Meet 2008 is now available on NSL-TV. It was the second fastest sequence of the competition (21-E-Q-L) and moved Airspeed Odyssey two points further away from the other top teams.

The US national 4-way team for this year's World Meet in France had not given up one point throughout the first four rounds. Two sole highscores and two tied highscores were on the Airspeed account after four rounds.

Perris Fury came close to Airspeed's 28-pointer with 27 points within working time but lost one point. The Golden Knights had the 27th scoring point right on the edge, and the judges didn't see it completed early enough.

Airspeed's dominating performance came out of the right-hand door of the Pilatus Porter, while Perris Fury and Golden Knights exited from the Twinotter. Airspeed seems to be ready for the competition at the World Meet. Most of the team's Porter exits and the following subterminal moves don't show a difference any longer compared to the Airspeed days from a Twinotter.

Norway's national 4-way team in the female category, Fortitudo, had more work with the Zig Zag exit of Block 21, as a few other teams struggled with this exit formation, as well, even from the Twinotter. Fortitudo was jumping from the Pilatus Porter in Raeford, together with Airspeed and Denmark's national 4-way team Danish Blaze.

The Fortitudo video of Round 4 was the only one avalaible for NSL-TV, due to the conversion problems from PAL to NTSC format. More videos of the Norwegian female lineup's indoor performance are available though and will be uploaded later.

Fortitudo finished the 10-round meet in Raeford with a 15.0 average, which is roughly on the same scoring level as at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008. The Norwegian team posted indoor averages of 19.5 at the World Challenge 2008 and 20.7 at the Paraclete XP Money Meet.

Ellen Burchardt (Tail), Lise Nansen (Center Inside), Trude Sviggum (Center Outside), Kristine Willadsen (Point), with Gudrun Rokne on camera, will compete for a set of medals at the upcoming World Meet in France. Female lineups from Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom and United States will compete in August, as well.

This year's results of the top contenders in the female category, UK's Bodyflight Storm, the French lineups and US team Fastrax Blue, indicate that a 15.0 average level might not be enough to win medals this year. Even the new Russian lineup, Joggy Bussi, posted a 17.1 average at the Russian Nationals a few weeks ago.

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Norway's young lineup will score far above the scores (12.6) of the previous national team at the World Meet in Germany 2006, and a 15.0 average would have been enough to win the bronze medals two years ago. However, World Meet medals seem to be hanging on a significantly higher branch this year.

The 15.0 average in Raeford is surely not the last Norwegian word, and the team expects a higher scoring level in August. It is still very likely that it will require a peak performance to win a place on the podium this year. The audience can expect a very tight competition in the female category, and the NSL News will cover it live from France.