posted Jun 16th, 2016 - The update of Thomas Hughes' NSL Profile was another piece in the Airspeed puzzle that the Sun Path Products NSL News has recently covered extensively.

The U.S. 4-way champion and national team of the last nine years will most likely add the 10th consecutive national 4-way title to the Airspeed collection, shortly after trying to win back the FAI gold medals that NMP PCH HayaBusa took to Belgium in Prostejov 2014.

However, the recent Airspeed coverage of the Sun Path Products NSL News was still not only about the team project legacy from Skydive Arizona in Eloy. The battle for the next FAI gold medals will soon become a popular topic, while the domestic situation has been mentioned a few times in earlier updates.

The story on June 9th brought the toughest U.S. challenger back into the picture: "SDC Rhythm XP will continue with the same lineup and not fill an open Airspeed slot for the first time since 2012." It is now time to follow up with the implications of the new situation.

JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz put a new Rhythm lineup together just a few weeks after Mikhail Markine announced his departure to Arizona, and after Christy Frikken had decided not to continue with Rhythm. Carolina Turbo XP members Andrew Happick and Doug Barron joined Rhythm, and the team training began soon after.

The new Rhythm lineup also re-assigned their slots with the new beginning, and also in a similar way as NMP PCH HayaBusa did at their beginning of a new lineup cycle after Luc Verstrepen left the team at the end of the 2008 season.

Steve Lefkowitz switched from Point to Outside Center, while his wife JaNette separated from her front piece partner for the first time and left to join the rear piece (Inside Center). Turbo's former driving engine Doug Barron moved to Tail, and only Andrew Happick came back in his Point slot.

Naturally, teams re-assign slots when they feel that they could get more out of a different constellation. This means that an even stronger Rhythm performance should be expected in the near future.

The current Rhythm lineup has been training with the new slots from the very beginning of the new team cycle and will have completed a whole year of training and competition at the end of the 2016 season. Rhythm has already attended three high-profile competitions (Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, Shamrock Showdown, World Challenge 2016) at this point in time.

Shamrock Showdown 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		3,13,9	G,6,21	10,20,11	18,4,B	F,1,14	19,5,7	P,Q,16,A	C,15,M,12	J,L,K,2	E,O,22,17	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	24	19	22(-1)	24	24	29	25	29	24	243	24.3
2	Aerodyne French Girls	FR	21	22	17	21	23	20(-3)	27	21(-1)	27	22(-1)	221	22.1
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	19	22	16	21	19	19	29	20	28	22	215	21.5
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	19	19	15	19	21	20	26(-2)	19	25	21	204	20.4
5	Satori XL	UK	19	18(-1)	16	20	19	20	26(-1)	18(-2)	24	22	202	20.2
6	TurBu 2.0	US	15(-1)	19	15	15(-1)	19	20	24(-1)	15(-1)	21(-1)	20	183	18.3
7	Teiwaz	US	11(-2)	13(-1)	12	13	12(-2)	13(-2)	16	11	17	12	130	13.0

It is very unlikely that the new Rhythm lineup could get anywhere close to Arizona Airspeed at this year's national championships. The distance between both teams was too large at the Shamrock Showdown to make it a real battle at the USPA Nationals 2016, despite Airspeed's earlier injury troubles (Thiago Gomes, Justin Price).

However, the situation changes dramatically after the USPA Nationals, when Airspeed launches a new cycle with Ari Perelman in Thomas Hughes' Outside Center slot. The Airspeed starting point could be closer than ever to Rhythm's performance level at the end of the 2016 season.

Since 2011, SDC Rhythm XP has not had the chance to take on Arizona Airspeed with a lineup that goes into the second year without giving a team member to the toughest opponent. The beginning of the 2017 season could be the most interesting starting point for the two top contenders since they have met each other the first time in 2007...