posted Mar 17th, 2013 - It happened again, this time at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013. Arizona Airspeed's new lineup was under serious pressure and fended off the Russian challenge by Barkli.

Airspeed took an early 2-point lead, and Barkli caught up in Round 3. Two rounds later, Airspeed had even worked out a new 7-point lead, and the meet seemed to be over. Barkli caught up again in Round 6 and tied the lead and the next round. Airspeed won again the next two rounds, and there was not enough time any longer for the Russian team to come back one more time.

The battle between Airspeed and Barkli produced very encouraging facts on both sides. Thomas Hughes, Mark Kirkby and videographer Bill Schmitz are still undefeated at any outdoor meets since they joined forces at the end of the 2010 season. Thiago Gomes and Chris Farina have now joined the effort to maintain the perfectly clean outdoor record.

Round 9	Round 10

Barkli on the other hand has never been so close to any Arizona Airspeed lineup or other US national teams since 8way world champions Sergey Shenin, Oleg Shalamykhin and Vladimir Pavlenko turned to 4way in 2006. They won 4way bronze medals in 2010 with Mikhail Kuznetsov in the lineup and were still never as close as now with new member Nikolay Vylegzhanin.

The distance was 8 points to DeLand Fire (21.8 - 23.4) after five rounds in 2006 and 7 points to Airspeed (23.5 - 24.4) after eight rounds in 2008. Even the bronze medal position after ten rounds in Menzelinsk 2010 (26.4 - 27.7) was still 13 points behind Airspeed. 46 points separated Airspeed and Barkli at the Mondial Dubai 2012.

The 5-point difference at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013 must be very encouraging for the new Barkli lineup with Center Inside Nikolay Vylegzhanin. The team has just started with training and goes back to DeLand for the next 4way camp in April.

Paraclete XP Outdoor 2013		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	6,17,15	B,11,16	18,N,22	9,4,F	J,E,C,3	K,O,12,M	5,D,8	Q,13,14	G,7,H,10	1,20,21	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed (US)	21(-2)	23(-1)	19	28(-1)	33(-1)	20(-3)	22(-1)	19(-3)	25(-1)	19(-1)	229	22.9
2	Sky Panthers Barkli (RU)	20(-1)	22	21	27(-1)	27(-2)	27	22	18(-2)	21(-2)	19	224	22.4
3	Evolution (CA)	17(-4)	21(-1)	16(-3)	28	27(-2)	24(-1)	21(-1)	20(-1)	19(-5)	16(-2)	209	20.9
4	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	17	18(-1)	17	25	28(-1)	21(-2)	21	15(-2)	19(-1)	15(-2)	196	19.6
5	Thunder (BE)	19	17(-2)	16(-2)	26(-1)	26(-2)	24(-1)	21	13(-4)	22	17(-1)	201	20.1
6	Carolina Turbo XP (US)	17	17(-1)	16	22(-1)	25	22	19	14(-1)	18	12(-3)	182	18.2
7	Dubai Asaar Black (AE)	15	18	16	20	19(-4)	18	16(-1)	15	14(-3)	14(-1)	165	16.5
8	a.team4way (RU)	14(-1)	15(-2)	11(-1)	18(-1)	22(-1)	15(-3)	14	14(-1)	17	13	153	15.3
9	Sunny Wind (RU)	13	17	14	20(-1)	10(-5)	18	13(-1)	12	14(-3)	11	142	14.2
10	VAF Warriors (DK)	12(-1)	13	10(-1)	17	16(-2)	11(-3)	12(-2)	10	10(-4)	9(-2)	120	12.0
11	China (CN)	10(-1)	14	10	16(-2)	17(-1)	14(-1)	12	10(-2)	12(-1)	11	126	12.6
12	Anima (BR)	11	13	9(-1)	16	16	12	10	8(-1)	12	7(-2)	11.4	11.4
13	Dubai Asaar Yellow (AE)	12	10	10	13(-2)	14(-1)	10	7(-2)	10	11(-1)	12	109	10.9
14	Cool Runnings (NL)	4(-3)	11	9	13	13(-1)	9(-2)	7(-2)	8(-1)	10(-1)	9	93	9.3
15	Ladies First (BR)	4(-1)	8	6(-1)	7	9(-1)	9(-1)	8(-1)	8	11	7(-2)	77	7.7

Arizona Airspeed will be just as motivated as Barkli is. The new lineup showed the traditional Airspeed quality to come up with the best performance when the pressure is the toughest. Thiago Gomes has proven that he is as strong in the Point slot as he was in the Tail position for SDC Rhythm XP. Chris Farina is now back in his A slot after starting as Point at the Valentine's Meet this year.

The extended leaderboard shows all point deductions at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013. It was not only the slowest competition draw in a long time. In addition, the many point deductions brought the meet averages down for most of the teams. Judges Eric Heinsheimer, Jim Rees and Randy Connell were ready to defend the current rules, which have no additional penalties for infringements, against the team efforts to sell any flaws to the judges by moving forward.

The sharp eyes of the former competitors and experienced judges detected more of those flaws and infringements than many of the teams and competitors expected and were used to at other competitions. The damage was more significant but spread evenly across the leaderboard. Teams and coaches will have a lot of information to work with after the international outdoor season opener in DeLand...