posted Jul 29th, 2008 - Two adjustments of the official registration for the World Meet 2008 were recently made. The NSL News had already reported earlier that Russia's situation in the female 4-way category was not clearly defined. Eventually, the JetBats decided not to compete in France and withdrew officially from the competition.

The other adjustment was not a withdrawal and came after the Swedish Nationals 2008. Blue Spirits did not win the national championship last week and will not compete in France. Team Evolution is the new Swedish 4-way champion and will represent Sweden at the World Meet.

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The AAA Class field in Gryttjom, the hosting site for the competition, was a colorful mix of Scandinavian teams and competitors. The team in 1st place on the leaderboard was actually Tigers from Finland, which stands for an almost sensational upset.

It must have been a long time ago that a team from Finland won the Swedish Nationals - if it had ever happened. The Tigers (Joonas Karjalainen, Nina Kivilompolo, Erkki Kursukangas, Nadja Lönnroth, Markus Pitkänen) posted a very impressive 16.2 average after ten rounds and did not only surprise the Swedish teams.

The other team from Finland, Pro Team, competed in Sweden, as well, and had no chance. The Pro Team (Laura Miettinen - Tail, Kimmo Pohjola - Center Outside, Outi Pohjola - Point, Eija Suvala - Center Inside, Mikko Kajala - Camera) had been much closer to the Tigers in previous meets and seemed to catch up with the dominationg team from Finland in the past years.

Not so at the Swedish Nationals 2008 where the Pro Team ended up in 5th place with a 14.8 average, while the Tigers even shocked the Swedish teams.

The new Swedish national team, Evolution (Martin Askelin, Emil Einarsson, Rickard Rodensjo, Felix Wallberg, Niklas Rodensjo on camera), had a fierce battle with the Tigers and was only one single point behind the team from Finland after ten rounds.

However, it was more important for Evolution to win the Swedish championship, which qualified the team for the upcoming World Meet. Blue Spirits ended up nine points behind Evolution and will sit out this year. Blue Spirits is mainly aiming at the World Meet 2010, as the team explained to the NSL News earlier this year.

An international pickup team, Gryttjom International, also separated Evolution and Blue Spirits on the AAA Class leaderboard. Martin Bäcklin, Ken Hansen, Joey Jones and Micke Kaulanen formed a team for the meet and finished in 3rd place wth a 15.5 average.

Formation Skydiving manager of the Swedish Parachuting Association, Erik Rydsmo, confirmed that Evolution will compete for Sweden at the World Meet:

"The competition was very exciting, especially the battle between the two teams Evolution and Blue Spirits about the title of the Swedish Champions. Evolution had a very good competition and made very few mistakes. Even though Blue Spirits set a new Swedish record with 27 points at one jump (Round 7) - that still wasn't enough."

He added that the 26-pointer of the Tigers in the same round was also a new Finnish record for a single round. The Tigers are registered for the World Meet and will compete for Finland in France.