posted Aug 2nd, 2014 - Sweden started the country's national championships a few days before France and completed the 10-round competition on Friday. Joey Jones, former DeLand Majik 4-way world champion, professional coach and regular anchor for the Sun Path Products NSL News live updates, was coaching a few Swedish teams and provided event information.

He said that he had a few weeks of great weather in Sweden and that the teams were all well prepared and ready to fight it out for more Swedish medals than in the past: "This year marks the first time that Sweden offered three competition categories: A, AA, and AAA. The addition of the AA Class was to hopefully increase the number of teams attending and make an easier transition for teams coming from the A Class."

One team took advantage of the new category in Sweden. C-4 was last year's A Class champion and now competed in the AA Class this week. Joey Jones knows the team well: "I have been working with C-4 at both this and last year's nationals, and am very impressed. I promise some or all of these guys will eventually be representing Sweden at the world level."

Sweden's strongest 4-way team, Gryttjom Volo, defended the AAA Class title successfully with the same lineup and with almost exactly the same meet average (16.8 - 17.1) as last year. Gryttjom Volo will not compete for Sweden at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014, even though the team posted the highest Scandinavian meet average this year.

The AAA Class team in 2nd place, eXact, will travel to Prostejov in a few weeks and attend the team's first international competition. eXact started in Sweden's A Class competition and won the national championships in 2012 with a 13.0 average. The Swedish team followed up with a 12.8 average in the AAA Class last year and placed 2nd with 11.9 this week.

There was not much of a competition for the first two places in AAA and A, while the bronze medals were given away after two exciting battles in both categories.

Swedish Nationals 2014		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	8,6,P	10,G,20	21,1,E	M,11,2	7,C,15	N,9,A,17	19,L,18	3,13,D	12,Q,B,O	K,H,14,22	Total	Avg
1	Gryttjom Volo (SE)	16	15	17	18	18	18	16	14	20	16	168	16.8
2	eXact (SE)	13	10	12	13	13	15	11	10	12	10	119	11.9
3	7 Stars On Fire (SE)	9	8	11	10	11	14	9	9	11	6	98	9.8
4	Nail It (SE)	10	8	10	11	9	11	8	7	11	9	94	9.4
Rank	AA Class	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	T.B.D.	Total	Avg
1	C4 (SE)	9	9	9	12	9	8	14	16	9	11	106	10.6
Rank	A Class	9,C	19,N	K,P,E	A,6	D,4	8,H	Q,F,J	7,O	M,L,G	J,21	Total	Avg
1	Team Nova (SE)	12	7	14	8	10	9	12	10	14	8	104	10.4
2	Fast 4ward (SE)	8	4	13	8	9	6	12	10	12	9	91	9.1
3	JASS (SE)	6	5	6	6	4	2	6	8	7	7	57	5.7
4	Estrella Pop Delight (SE)	6	4	6	6	5	4	7	8	6	4	56	5.6

Joey Jones said that the all-female Nail It lineup was fighting it out for the 3rd place with pick-up team 7 Stars On Fire in the AAA Class: "7 Stars On Fire held off a late charge from Nail It to win by four points, with 9.8 and 9.4 averages."

It was a very similar situation in the A Class: "The story of the day was the epic battle for the bronze medals. In what was an up and down battle all week, all-female team JASS overcame a 2-point deficit in the last round to win by one point over Estrella Pop De Light."

Joey Jones said that winning team team Nova continued to show that training works: "Their hard work in Deland, Spain and the tunnel showed itself with a 10.4 finishing average, well over last year's winning average in this category." Joey Jones now moves on to Italy where he hopes to see more of the "same competitive spirit and more epic battles" at the upcoming national championships.