posted Jul 24th, 2009 - A very busy meet weekend is coming up with four competitions in the USA and five in Europe. Two of these meets take place in Germany, and one of them is the very popular annual Nuggets Cup in Leutkirch. 26 teams attended the competition last year, and the NSL News reported live from the competition site.

It is an exciting situation this year in Germany, as the NSL News reported already on 7 May 2009. Three teams will be competing for this year's national championship title, which will qualify the winner as the national team for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 in Russia.

The three top contenders, the current national team and defending champion FSC Eisenach, former national champion EADS and challenger/underdog X-Ray Remscheid, have followed different strategies to get ready for the national championship at the beginning of August.

EADS, with reigning Australian 4-way champion Jens Goennemann, officially resigned as the national team after the team competed at the World Meet 2006 in Germany and has not trained much in 4-way at all ever since. EADS teamed up with FSC Eisenach and represented Germany in 8-way at the World Meet 2008 in France.

EADS and FSC Eisenach had only planned for a little bit of 8-way training this year. This plan changed when the charging and challenging X-Ray Remscheid lineup increased the training and seemed to catch up with the two dominating 4-way teams of the past years. EADS and FSC Eisenach canceled the 8-way efforts and focused on the 4-way event.

Neither of these two teams seems to compete this weekend. FSC Eisenach attended the Nuggets Cup last year and walked away with the first place. However, X-Ray Remscheid already won one of the five rounds in 2008 and has increased the pace consistently ever since. The EADS 8-way team also competed at the same event last year.

This year, EADS and FSC Eisenach will probably only be observing what X-Ray Remscheid can come up with. FSC Eisenach chose to compete in a small regional 4-way competition, which had an extremely fast competition draw.

The 22.3 average after six rounds is still an impressive showing and might have an impact on the confidence level of all three contenders.

However, EADS and X-Ray Remscheid both consist of the most experienced German 4-way and 8-way veterans, while FSC Eisenach represents the latest generation of younger competitors. It is unlikely that EADS and X-Ray Remscheid will be much impressed by the latest Eisenach scores.

X-Ray Remscheid will compete at the Nuggets Cup and use the last serious opportunity for competition practice before the German Nationals 2009.

The two female top contenders in Germany will most likely repeat their race at the Nuggets Cup this year, as well. Incognito Leutkirch has seriously challenged the national team of many years, the Chicas, who fended off the young and eager Incognito ladies in 2008.

The competition between Chicas and Incognito will receive the same attention as the 3-way battle between the top teams. The NSL News will follow with updates and scores as soon as they are available.