posted Jun 23rd, 2009 - Two of the European powerhouses in 4-way competition, Netherlands and United Kingdom, had another busy meet last weekend. The Netherlands won the prize for the highest participation with 23 teams at the Tomscat Trophy 2009. 16 UK teams competed at Hibaldstow, the hosting skydiving center of the UK Nationals 2009 in August and the European Skydiving League championship event in September.

The top of last weekend's international AAA Class leaderboard is still a colorful mix of teams from several different nations. In fact, the first four teams of the AAA Class leaderboard are from four different nations.

The NSL News already pointed out how the Dutch national 4-way team Dynamic Fource carried a 2-point advantage over MWSL shooting star SDC Rhythm XP past the 6-round finish line. Dynamic Fource has a slow year, as the NSL News reported earlier, while SDC Rhythm XP is still on a busy training agenda.

UK team Sonicnutz completed only three rounds at the Tomscat Trophy. However, the scores for these rounds and the average puts the new lineup, a combination of two teams of 2008, Sonic V and Wingnutz, in the 3rd place position. Sonicnutz and Dynamic Fource will probably meet each other again, then live on competition site, when both teams represent their countries at the FAI World Cup 2009.

The Italian teams completed only two rounds at Skydive Marche, which is also the host for the Italian Nationals 2009 in September. Vertigo, with former Sinapsi member Arianna De Benedetti, still showed in the first two rounds that the best Italian team of last weekend was a part of the top competition.

Another Dutch team, NRG, took the 5th place before the first team from Norway added another nation to the top part of the international AAA Class leaderboard. X3M4s was Norway's farm team in 2008 and had a reunion last weekend. The team members have gone different ways this year, as the NSL News already reported earlier. More details of the situation in Norway will follow soon.

The next US team, Teiwaz, once again with a new lineup, and another Dutch team, Whooops, follow on the current leaderboard before five more UK teams occupy the next five spots.

The 23 teams at the Tomscat Trophy 2009 in the Netherlands match exactly the number of teams at last year's event. Dynamic Fource has maintained the scoring level without much training, while NRG is already a point up on last year's average and the team's first competition this year, the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2009. Whooops is already on a significantly higher scoring level compared to last year's event, as well.

The AA Class competition in the Netherlands had a much stronger participation this year (2009: 6 - 2008: 2) since a few teams have moved up from the A Class competition of 2008 (Empat Laki Laki and Serges Angels). Habanero came back from the 2008 season, and three new teams joined the competition starting in the AA Class.

The A Class still had six teams competing, and the top position was open, as the best two A Class teams of 2008 now compete in the AA Class. The two teams on the top of this year's A Class leaderboard, Creeps and Murphy Mania, both competed in the Rookie Class last year and collected points for the Dutch delegation at the ESL Championship 2008. Now they are already in 3rd and 5th place of last weekend's international A Class leaderboard.

Cool Runnings is in 6th place after coming back in the same competition class where the team competed last year, together with team Jan.

Three new Rookie Class teams joined the 4-way competition in the Netherlands, while 4igami was already a part of the Dutch league last year and competed for the Dutch delegation at the ESL Championship 2008, as well. The best new Dutch Rookie Class team, Meo, is also the current leader of all 16 Rookie Class teams last weekend, with an 11.8 average after five rounds for the Rookie Class teams at the Tomscat Trophy 2009.

It was a strong start into the 2009 season for the Dutch teams. It seems as if the Netherlands prepare for the next shot at winning the annual ESL trophy, the Spirit, at the ESL Championship 2009. The Dutch 4-way delegation won the trophy in 2005 and 2007, then lost it last year to the UK delegation.