posted Jun 13th, 2017 - The Sun Path Products NSL News aftermath of the Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2017 begins with very exciting video footage. NSL-TV proudly presents Arizona Airspeed's ten competition rounds. The footage was kindly provided by Airspeed's tail, Mikhail Markine.

The video coverage does not end with the meet videos, which are showing Airspeed's road to the 25.8 average at Skydive Paraclete XP. Team captain Niklas Hemlin also took the time on Tuesday to tell the Airspeed story at the most recent outdoor competition.

Niklas Hemlin explained the significantly higher 25.8 average, compared to the Shamrock Showdown 2017, not only with the improved performance after a lot of training. Airspeed had a very busy month of May and felt almost exhausted coming into the Raeford meet.

He said that last weekend's competition draw was also slightly faster than the one at the DeLand meet in March, where five sequences began with a block move out the door. Airspeed scored three consecutive 33-pointers last weekend, while only two sequences allowed 30+ scores in DeLand.

Paraclete XP Summer Classic 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	K,20,17	8,7,11	P,G,14,N	H,C,9,15	J,F,3,5	Q,E,M,13	2,21,L	6,12,B	22,O,10	A,1,19	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	24	21	27	33	33	33	21	23	19	24	258	25.8
2	SDC Rhythm XP	23	20	28	30	31	31	21	22	20	24	250	25.0
3	R2G	16	14	19	20	20	20	14	14	14	14	165	16.5
4	Phoenix XP	14	15	17	17	14	18	14	13	13	14	149	14.9

Niklas Hemlin said that there is always room for improvements, and his team will find several spots where higher scores would be possible. However, the 25.8 average came after six months of training with the new lineup and is not far behind the 26.5 average that won the USPA Nationals 2016.

In fact, Arizona Airspeed's 4-way lineups have posted 27+ averages only twice in the history of the team franchise. The first time in Menzelinsk 2010 (27.4) was boosted by a 55-pointer Super Sequence, and Niklas Hemlin himself was in the lineup that won the gold medals at the FAI Mondial Dubai 2012 with a 27.9 average.

26.2 was NMP PCH HayaBusa's winning average at the FAI Mondial 2016, and Arizona Airspeed is moving closer to last year's winning level. The previous Airspeed lineup had finished with 25.4 at last year's world meet.

It's a promising road that the reigning USPA 4-way champions are on at this point, and it would be even more promising if there wasn't the Rhythm factor.

Shamrock Showdown 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		4,E,P,12	20,5,L	J,6,13	N,7,K,C	15,1,F	G,B,18,3	8,11,Q	H,22,19	14,2,16	M,D,21,O	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	22(-2)	25	34(-1)	22	23	21	20	18	31	239	23.9
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	22	23	22(-1)	29(-3)	22	22	18(-1)	19	19	31	227	22.7
3	Elixir	US	18(-1)	19(-1)	22	27	20	21	21	19	13(-2)	29	209	20.9
4	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	17	14(-1)	17	22(-1)	16	12(-1)	15(-1)	17	13(-1)	24	167	16.7
5	Adventure Flyers	PY	7(-1)	6(-1)	7(-1)	9	6	9	7	9	5	8(-1)	73	7.3

History of the 4-way Open Class competition between Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP

The progression of the Airspeed challenger is even faster and more aggressive, at least according to the numbers.

The chart with the history of the competition between the two teams and their different lineups is showing that SDC Rhythm XP's current lineup (JaNette and Steve Lefkowitz, Andrew Happick, Doug Barron, with Adam Elkin on camera) has reduced the distance from 39 points at the first outdoor duel with Airspeed in March 2016 to eight points last weekend.

Both current Airspeed and Rhythm lineups battled for the first time directly with and against each other at the Shamrock Showdown 2017 where Airspeed won by 12 points (239 - 227). Rhythm had a 1-year head start with the same lineup, while Airspeed was re-building after the USPA Nationals 2016.

Niklas Hemlin was happy after the Shamrock Showdown when his new lineup was still or already ahead of Rhythm. The distance is down to eight points now; however, Airspeed's team captain still feels the same way. He knows that Airspeed will score higher at the national championships. However, he also knows that he will be up for a battle in Perris in September...