posted Aug 12th, 2016 - Traveling coach and roving reporter Joey Jones, powered by Sun Path Products, mentioned during the coverage of the Swedish Nationals 2016 that he would visit Italy next on his trips to national championships in the European summer. He now sent the first update from Skydive Ravenna where six AAA Class teams compete for the Italian 4-way medals this year.

The Italian competition draw is a special one, as it brought the first real Super Sequence of the 2016 season to the AAA Class teams. Two sequences with five random formations were drawn in April, however, no AAA Class teams attended the early outdoor meets this year in Virginia (April 16) and Northern California (April 30).

The Italian draw has even more to offer. Round 9 (G,9,F,H) adds another very fast round to the draw. However, the Italian teams first have to make their way through the thicker part of the meet before they can post record scores again.

Italian Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	K,B,E,A,O	18,M,6	19,Q,D,17	13,N,1	16,22,5	4,11,15	L,3,14	2,7,20	G,9,F,H	12,P,10	Total	Avg
1	eX3mo 4	32	19	16	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	67	22.3
2	Sei Uno Zero	28	16	18	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	62	20.7
3	Energy	30	15	16	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	61	20.3
4	Amnesia	23	15	16	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	54	18.0
5	A.N.P. Bari	17	11	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	38	12.7
6	Enigma	11	9	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	26	8.7

Joey Jones from the Italian Nationals 2016

Hello again, NSL audience, from your roving reporter, Joey Jones, powered by Sun Path, coming to you on my 3rd stop of the 2016 competition season, the Italian Nationals at beautiful Skydive Ravenna.

There are two Pilatus Porters lined up to get the thirteen 4-way FS teams in to the air, and the weather is beautiful. A slight sea breeze is coming off the Adriatic Sea, but unfortunately I doubt I will have time to get to the sea with all the jumping to be done.

In the AAA Class you have five teams battling it out for the three podium slots. Returning champs Ex3mo will be defending against Team Energy, 610, ANPDI Bari, and last years A Class winner Amnesya. Both Ex3mo and 610 have added player coaches to their lineups, while Team Energy has made a slot change. 610 trains and competes with Livio Piccolo and Ex3mo have seasoned competitor Marco Arrigo back in their lineup.

Ex3mo has had a string of injuries in their work-up for the Mondial in Chicago. Three of the five team members have been injured at some point this year, and they have only completed 200 of 300 planned jumps, with only a hand full out of the Pilatus. Despite that, they look confident to defend last year's title.

610 (Sei Uno Zero) has mentioned that they are a bit behind in jump numbers, but Livio said they are close to 100 training jumps this season. Team Energy has had a fairly successful season completing approx. 120 jumps. With everything taken into account it could be an interesting meet for sure.

Amnesya, last year's A Class winner, has changed two members and completed 180 jumps this season, with HayaBusa's David Grauwels as their coach. I look forward to seeing their progress. Bari finished in 8th place last year and have completed 80 jumps under the watchful eye of coach Marco Arrigo.