posted Jul 11th, 2012 - Last weekend's A Class leaderboard did not need any adjustments, and it was owned by teams from Finland. Four of the five teams competed in Utti, and the Angry Birds completed the same six rounds at Chicagoland Skydiving.

The NSL News update from Finland on 26 June 2012 had pointed out that "a team from Finland took the top spot in the A Class". It was something special and does not happen often that a team from a very small skydiving country ends up on the top of the leaderboard. Now it happened again, and just a few weeks later.

It was Umppa Lumpat who won the top spot for Finland, and the audience may better get used to it, as the A Class team has improved the meet averages (4.0 - 6.4 - 8.2) meet by meet. Marko Saaresto, meet and league manager in Finland, had mentioned earlier that he expects Umppa Lumpat "to exceed the 10-point average in the A Class by the time of Finland's national championships." The numbers show that the team is on track.

July 7th, 2012			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		C,Q,19	L,H,G	O,N,2	F,8	9,J	A,6	Total	Avg
1	Umppa Lumpat (FI)	INT	8	9	8	9	8	7	49	8.2
2	Kutina (FI)	INT	6	8	9	6	6	6	41	6.8
3	CSC Angry Birds (US)	MWSL	5	8	7	6	7	5	38	6.3
4	Belly Boys (FI)	INT	2	6	6	4	2	6	26	4.3
5	Sopulit (FI)	INT	3	6	3	4	3	6	25	4.2

Marko Saaresto also said that he was expecting more teams and a more intense competition last weekend, and he was right. Last weekend's meet was the last day of this year's Finnish Team Camp, and the event had great participation and also prominent visitors.

The 4way camp in Utti was organized by Nina Kivilompolo and Joonas Karjalainen, both members of the 4way team Tigers.

Six teams were training all week, guided by world class coaches Joey Jones and Marco Arrigo, plus additional assistant coach Kimmo Pohjola, a former Pro Team member. The coaches also helped all teams throughout the competition.

Marko Saaresto said that the great weather conditions were imported from Italy by coach Arrigo Marco:

"It helped make the camp a great success, with clear improvements in individual and team skills. This meet was the last chance to show off and strike fear to one's competitors before the nationals in August. Nina and other organizers made the meet go like a clockwork and managed to push all teams through six rounds and still have time for a grand two-plane camp finishing big way jump."

Not only Umppa Lumpat benfitted from the training before the meet. AAA Class team Honeymoon attended the team's second meet this year and increased the meet average from 4.3 in May to 6.5 last weekend.

Marko Saaresto gave one team special credit: "Special thanks goes to Valtteri and Girls, a group of three energetic and enthusiastic recent license holders. Not participating in the camp, they got inspired the previous day to try 4way competition and decided to go for it. This is the very essence of why we organize the league!"

The Rookie Class team name was also the longest and most interesting one. Unfortunately, the translation engines could not come up with English words that would make a lot of sense...

According to Marko Saaresto, and confirmation pending, this might have been the most popular league meet in Finland ever: "With the usual turn up of one to three teams a meet, having six was a blast! Our sole judge Harry "Halli" Latvala had a full day of work judging and handling the video drop."

The grande finale also included a 4way demonstration jump by a US-Italian-Finnish combination. The video shows four of the coaches in action (Nina Kivilompolo, Kimmo Pohjola, Joey Jones, Marco Arrigo).

Former Pro Team videographer Mikko Kajala was filming the jump. He is now a with the Silver Knights, probably the currently strongest Finnish 4way team, which has not attended a meet this year so far. The Finnish teams have a few more weeks for training before the national championships begin in August.