posted Feb 9th, 2009 - The NSL News story on 7 January 2009 announced that the World Challenge 2009 will have the best field in the event's history and explained why.

The story on 12 January 2009 explained the history of the event and how the participation has been growing year after year. It is now already a fact that this year's event will not only have the best field in the World Challenge history - it will also and once again set a new record of participation.

The NSL News just posted the currently registered teams on the event page, and the total number of teams is already higher compared to the previous record number of 39 last year. 32 teams have signed up for the AAA Class competition so far (30 in 2008), and nine teams will compete in the AA Class (9 in 2008).

There are two more months for teams to add their names to the list. 32 teams were registered at the beginning of February last year, 41 team names can be found on the event page by now. There is obviously a very good chance that the list will still grow significantly.

Most of the top teams had already signed up early and were mentioned by the NSL News in the previous stories. However, several interesting team names have been added to the list ever since, some new ones and some old ones.

The Hungarian team Airmageddon competed already last year at Bodyflight Bedford and finished in the well respected last position of the 30-team field in the AAA Class. Monika Huszar, Jozsef Kiss, Zalan Reviczky and Milan Schwartz are obviously motivated to improve the team's 8.8 average at the 2008 event

The NSL News had just reported the new Dutch/Belgian joint effort in 4-way after information came first in from the Netherlands. Hayabusa Defence member David Grauwels added the names of the Belgian competitors in the lineup, and team member Sven Ibens finally lifted the secret of the team name. 4XThunder will attend the World Challenge 2009 and help to lift the general performance level even higher.

Sven Ibens provided some additional information of the team plans in 2009: "We plan on having two 10-day training camps this year, two other 4-day camps and somewhere between 15 and 20 hours of windtunnel training. We hope to be doing around 250 training jumps. We will participate in the Bedford World Challenge, the Belgian Nationals and the ESL Championship."

The former Hayabusa member said that the new team plans to stay together for two years and have a lot of fun. The broad collection of 4-way experiences in this lineup will allow the team members to benefit from each other, as Sven Ibens explained: "With our different backgrounds and previous team approaches and angles of view, we hope to bring out the best for this team.".

Italy has always had a competitive 4-way lineup at the previous World Challenges. The team name Ex3fun indicates once again that members of the 8-way bronze medalist last year at the World Meet in Maubeuge will get together in Bedford for a high-level 4-way performance. Last year's Ex3mix lineup finished with a 20.7 average.

UK's national team of 2008, Fusion, is also on the list of teams in the AAA Class. The Fusion members were heavily involved in the Fun Flag drama last year. The NSL News will probably have some serious question as of the current status of the flag during the visit at the World Challenge 2009...

Magic 4 from the Baltic country of Lithuania opened the 2008 season in Bedford last year and then represented Lithuania as the national team at the World Meet 2008 in France. The team earned a very respectable place in the middle of the field with a 15.8 average in Maubeuge. Magic 4 comes back to Bedford this year and brings another lineup from Lithuania, Team Vilnius, which will compete in the AA Class competition.

Team Sequence from Denmark is also back in business this year, as the team name was recently added to the list. The NSL News has no information yet of the situation in Denmark and the status of the national team. Danish Blaze represented Denmark at the World Meet 2008, Sequence was the next team in line.

The AA Class teams at the World Challenge 2009 will be challenged by one of last year's strongest A Class teams in the United Kingdom, the Strangers. The AA Class competition promises exciting races, as well.