posted Jun 3rd, 2009 - The NSL News has mentioned the FAI World Cup 2009 in the Czech Republic already quite a few times this year, as several teams have this international top competition already on their calendar for the 2009 season. The logo of the event, the link to the NSL News coverage and scores page and a link to the website of the host have now been set up, as well, and confirm that the NSL News will provide live coverage from Prostejov.

The coverage will be a copy of the previous cooperation between NSL News and Camscore at the World Challenge 2009 and the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2009. Camscore has been invited to the Czech Republic, as well, and the NSL/Camscore combination will present the event even better than ever to the on-line audience.

The International Parachuting Commission (IPC) of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) sanctions and schedules a World Cup of Formation Skydiving usually every other year when the World Championship of Formation Skydiving is off. The FS World Championship is exclusively for the national teams of each nation, while four teams can enter the World Cup competition.

As in 2007, this year's World Cup will also be FAI's European Formation Skydiving Championship at the same time. In fact, the 2007 event did not have any attendance of US teams at all, or teams from other parts of the world. All teams came from 15 different European countries, including the female 4-way category.

This may be different in 2009, as a few US teams already expressed their interest in competing internationally at the World Cup in the Czech Republic. The question is whether the US top teams will sign up for the event or not.

The 2007 event had a dramatic finish in the Open Class competition, as many will probably remember. France Maubeuge and Hayabusa Defence battled it out over the ten rounds and were tied in 1st place, both with a 23.0 average. Hayabusa won the jump-off round by one point and took home the gold medals.

The Russian Sky Panthers were only one single point behind France and Belgium after ten rounds and almost made it a 3-team jump-off, which would have been a unique situation in Formation Skydiving history. Russia's Black Cat finished in 4th place with a 22.0 average.

The French lineup with Sophie Deremaux, Catherine Gallet, Sandy Labattu, Françoise Simons-Hamouchi and Christophe Chekroun on camera won the gold medals in the female category. It was the last competition for the previous national team and before Sophie Deremaux and Françoise Simons-Hamouchi continued with Aerokart Deep Blue. Russia's JetBats and Germany's Chicas won silver and gold.

There was neither a US team nor a UK team competing in the female category in 2007. Bodyflight Storm and Team Elan were in the middle of their race for the UK Championship 2007. Storm won the UK Nationals 2007 and then the World Championship in France 2008.

France, Russia and Italy won the medals in the 8-way event. France and Italy copied their medal positions a year later at the World Meet in France. Russia's 8-way team did not continue and left the silver medals at the World Meet for the US 8-way team in Maubeuge.

The participation at this year's World Cup will most likely be even more promising, as the competition site in the Czech Republic is located in the center of Europe. The World Cup 2007 conflicted with the Malevsky Cup 2007, which was also held in Russia just a month earlier. The two best US teams, Airspeed and Fastrax, made only one trip to Russia and picked the earlier Malevsky Cup. It was the same situation for the NSL News.

Only the four Russian teams that competed at the Malevsky Cup 2007 ended up on the leaderboard of the World Cup 2007, as well. Airspeed and Fastrax traveled back to the USA and then prepared for the USPA Nationals 2007, which would be the qualifyer for the World Meet 2008 in France.

There is no scheduling conflict this year, and the Czech Republic is easier to travel to for most of the European teams. The competition is scheduled for 30 August to 6 September 2009. The competition jumps begin on Monday (1 August) and will be completed on Thursday (5 August).

Rina Gallo from Canada is the Chief Judge for the Formation Skydiving events, and she will be using the Camscore system in Prostejov. She is already familiar with the system, as she was judging at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2009 in March this year. Andrew Mansfield and Jo Bell had brought the Camscore system to DeLand and used the time to explain all details to Rina Gallo, Judy Celaya and Eric Heinsheimer.

They also demonstrated the judging option with reduced speed, as the judges in DeLand applied a 70% judging procedure without any difficulties throughout the whole competition. The NSL YouTube TV video shows some jumps being judged with slower speed. However, the World Cup 2009 will be judged according to the current IPC rules, and Camscore and Rina Gallo will be prepared for it.

Jump plane in the Czech Republic is a L 410 Turbolet with a left-hand door. This aircraft if well known in Europe and drops the teams at a speed of approx. 150 kph (95 mph). The door is equipped with handle bars outside for teams and videographers. The same jump plane was used at the Malevsky Cup events.

Prostejov is located approx. two driving hours east of the Czech Republic's historical capitol city, Prague, and even closer to Austria's beautiful capitol city, Vienna. The competition will take place at a civilian airfield, which is is a natural part of the town of Prostejov and only a few miles away from downtown. A corner of the airfield was selected as the center of the competition site. Two small hangars and the Falcon Air Skydiving Club's building form a natural compound there.

The staff's preparations are already in full swing, and Prostejov will be ready to welcome the skydiving world. The World Cup 2009 also includes Vertical FS competition, plus Freestyle and Freeflying in the artistic events.