posted Jan 12th, 2012 - The first lists of the currently registered teams for the Shamrock Showdown 2012 and the World Challenge 2012 are now available, and they are extremely promising.

Several teams have scheduled once again the meet combination and will first travel to Florida, then to the United Kingdom. The three best 4way teams in the world launch their race for the gold medals in Dubai at the Shamrock Showdown, and Arizona Airspeed is not going to miss this opportunity for a real 4way showdown with Aerodyne Aerokart and NMP-PCH Hayabusa in DeLand.

Airspeed usually posts the first scores of the year at the Valentine's Meet 2012. That was the case in 2011 when the French national team also visited Eloy in February. The NSL News has no information yet of the teams in Eloy this year. However, the Shamrock Showdown 2011 was the last time and place where the three top contenders met each other for an outdoor competition, and the Shamrock Showdown 2012 will bring them back together.

Shamrock Showdown 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	N,H,3,1	J,4,C,13	7,17,19	B,20,15	12,22,M	F,18,2	E,16,9	G,8,21	P,A,11,14	10,Q,D,L	Total	Avg
1	USA Arizona Airspeed	25	25	25	24	20	25	30	22	24	29	249	24.9
2	France Aerodyne Aerokart	23	24	23	24	19	23	29	23	24	24	236	23.6
3	Belgium NMP-PCH Hayabusa	21	23	22	23	19	21	28	20	22	29	228	22.8

The 2012 season is a very long one for the national teams, longer than ever before. The World Championship of Formation Skydiving, part of the Mondial 2012 in Dubai, begins at the end of November. The national teams have to plan the 2012 season more carefully. It is beneficial for some teams who have not had much training together, especially for new lineups. It is more challenging for teams with a full time commitment.

NMP-PCH Hayabusa, the Belgian national 4way team and top contender for the gold medals this year, is one of the few "pro teams" who have to plan carefully. Hayabusa will do the planning for the 2012 season together with Gary Smith who has taken Joey Jones' position as the team's head coach. He was mainly the indoor coach in the past and is now also in charge for the outdoor training. Hayabusa has still scheduled a few training days with Joey Jones, as well.

Roy Janssen told the NSL News that his team is still on a break until January 17th after coming back from the 3rd Dubai Championship 2011. Hayabusa will then begin the 2012 season with approx. ten hours of indoor training, first in Roosendaal, then at Bodyflight Bedford. That's when Gary Smith will begin his 2012 work with the Belgian team.

World Challenge 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,C,5	20,P,2	H,M,Q,K,A	L,J,16,12	E,7,15	O,11,22	14,B,17	6,13,9	4,3,21	1,G,8	Total	Avg
1	Belgium NMP-PCH Hayabusa	27	25	65	29	33	23	28	28	22	25	305	30.5
2	USA Arizona Airspeed	26	24	60	27	34	24	27	28	23	25	298	29.8
3	France Aerodyne Aerokart	26	25	52	27	31	25	29	27	24	24	290	29.0

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Hayabusa travels to Florida on March 4th and has ten days of outdoor training to get ready for the Shamrock Showdown. It is a later start for the team compared to the previous years. Roy Janssen explained that the late competition in Dubai is one of the reasons. Even the Belgian funds are limited: "We dont have enough money to start early in the season and keep training untill Dubai in December."

The Belgian team has not scheduled any training between Shamrock Showdown and World Challenge. The next training camp will be in Spain two weeks after the indoor competition. Two more outdoor training camps follow until July. Hayabusa will fill some of the gaps between the camps with tunnel training.

July will bring a summer break for the Belgians before the second half of the year begins with two weeks of training in August. This camp leads into the European Formation Skydiving Championship 2012, which will take place in Prostejov, host of the World Cup in 2009. This event will probably bring France and Belgium together for another serious test before the World Meet. The domestic duty follows early in September when Hayabusa has to defend the national 4way title. The Belgian Nationals 2012 may be combined with the ESL Championship 2012, as the skydiving center in Moorsele is hosting both events.

Then begins the critical runup to the World Meet in Dubai, which is by far the most important event in 2012, maybe in Hayabusa history. The team heads back to Spain for the next training camp after the competition in Belgium. Two more outdoor camps will follow, and the last one in November could bring Hayabusa back to Florida for weather reasons.

It is a very long season, and Roy Janssen is not expecting too much at the Shamrock Showdown in March: "It is a good test, but we will still be the underdog at this point in time. France and Airspeed will have trained more by then." He is not worried about the results at the Shamrock Showdown: "We know the season is long and so many things can happen."

And then again, history shows that the winner of the Shamrock/World Challenge combination wins the World Meet. But that was with a different timing...