posted Jul 20th, 2009 - It has become even difficult to imagine after Round 3 that any team at the World Games 2009 could still challenge Arizona Airspeed.

The posted scores of Round 3 are official, as they are copied from the official scoreboard at the competition site in Koahsiung, Taiwan. The Airspeed world champions added three points to the lead over the Sky Panthers who are still holding the 2nd place, now with a 5-point lead over France Maubeuge.

Belgium's World Cup champions of 2007, Hayabusa Defence, have lost even more ground after sharing the highscore for Round 1 with Airspeed and then dropping out of contention in Round 2. The helicopter exits from the right-hand door could be one reason for the other teams' difficulties to keep up with Airspeed.

Craig Girard provided additional and new information for the NSL News and the audience, directly from the competition site. It is quite impressive to see how Airspeed's team captain obviously delivers another first class performance in Taiwan, while he still finds enough time to collect photos and information for the NSL News. Thank you very much in the name of the skydiving community, Craig.

He said that he began to see that some teams have difficulties with the exits. It is not only the right-hand door of the helicopter that causes trouble for the teams. There are also problems for the videographers who leave too early and miss the showing of the exit formation. Especially Sky Panthers and Hayabusa had video trouble in Round 3. Hayabusa was hit the hardest after a subterminal collision and ended up with the lowest score of the round.

Airspeed has not had the same problems so far. Craig Girard explained that his team launched a Side Body (P) successfully in the first two rounds and then transitioned to the first points of the sequences, the Ritz of Block 19 in Round 1 and a Cataccord (G) in Round 2.

This strategy has worked well for the reigning 4-way world champions, and Craig Girard said that they would continue doing this. It worked again in Round 3, where the Monopod of Block 4 was even more challenging from a little known helicopter door.

He added that Airspeed videographer Steve Nowak has an awesome meet and that his video is excellent. Good exits and videos have now given Airspeed the confidence that will possibly even extend the current lead. Craig Girard confirmed that his team feels good about the competition:

"The helicopter has been really great for us, we are starting to actually feel better every jump."

That's not the greatest news for the rest of the field. The other world class teams are not only trying to get familiar with the exits. They also have to wait for Airspeed slipping at some point in time, and there is not much time left.

It has already been a slow meet with a lot of waiting time for the 4-way teams. Craig Girard said that the loading procedure for a round takes a lot of time. The other air sports events also take their shares whenever the weather allows action. He was not too surprised when the 4-way teams completed only one round on Monday so far. He was still hoping to get another round in later, as the official schedule for Monday had the 4-way teams back in action at the end of the day.

The rest of the 4-way field may get another chance on Tuesday. Craig Girard said that the weather forecast looks pretty good for tomorrow. He even thinks that there is a chance to finish all six rounds of the meet.

Other than that, he and his team seem to enjoy the atmosphere of the World Games 2009 very much.

He provided some feedback as of the other aspects of a major event in the sports world:

"The World Games on a whole have been amazing! It is such an honor to be part of something so big fun for so many people. After we finished jumping yesterday we went to go watch the final event for the Sport Climbing and saw some great climbers competing for the Gold.

There are also many volunteers who are helping everybody out and who are making Taiwan a very special place. These people are very hard workers and are always happy and in a great mood. That is pretty much what I have discovered about Taiwan: people are so friendly and helpful. I am also constantly surprised at how many people speak English here."

The next information that the audience will get from Taiwan will hopefully be more scores. Thanks again to Airspeed's Craig Girard for bringing the event closer to the NSL News audience.