posted Feb 16th, 2004 - Today is a good opportunity to finish the Belgian story before the scores of the season opener in Eloy will arrive at the NSL headquarters and keep the NSL News busy. The story of the tough Belgium 4-way competition to be expected this year still misses the introduction of the challenger.

The NSL News of February 9th covered the history of the Belgium 4-way competition and the situation of the defending champion, NMPV, the Belgium Army team. Team Hayabusa is getting ready to stop or at least interrupt the dominance of the current Belgian national team. The chances are better than ever before.

Hayabusa was formed in October 2002 and consists of Andy Grauwels (point, age: 19), David Grauwels (outside center, age: 23), Roy Janssen (tail, age: 25), Sven Ibens (center inside, age: 33) and Bruno Vandeneede (camera, age: 30).

Ibens has been actively involved in forming the Belgium Skydiving Trophy (BST) and the European Skydiving League together with Willy Boykens. His team participated in the BST 2003 season and won the first European Skydiving League championship in September 2003. This event was synchronized with the NSL Playoffs 2003. Hayabusa took the second place behind DeLand Majik with a 15.1 average in the 10-round meet.

The result at the ESL Championship 2003 was not the highest score for the young Belgian team. Hayabusa had already posted a 15.8 average at the Belgium national championship after approx. 150 training jumps in 2002 and 2003 and a few wind tunnel hours in Paris, France.

Training headquarters for the team was Maubeuge, home town of the French national 4-way team and current world champion. However, Hayabusa did not take much advantage of the French expertise and went mostly their own ways. 2003 was supposed to be just a trial year for the new team.

The first season was at least as successful as expected. It was not difficult for the team to commit for another year. Hayabusa's talent and potential seems to promise significantly higher scores for the new and second team season.

The chances to win the national championship and qualify for the 2004 world meet are also very real this year and made it easier for the team members to continue with the efforts. The defending champion, NMPV, had personnel changes and currently rebuilds the team, while Hayabusa has exactly the same 2003 line-up for the 2004 season.

The commitment and plans for the new year were made early enough in 2003 to allow at least some training efforts during the quiet European winter. Hayabusa has already spent five hours in the wind tunnel in Paris, France, since the end of the 2003 season. One tunnel hour per month has kept the team in shape during the time when team training is not possible in Belgium.

The February camp at Skydive DeLand, side by side with their Belgian 2004 rival, was Hayabusa's first training camp after the ESL Championship 2003. It added 25 team jumps and additional five SkyVenture Orlando tunnel hours in the team's log book.

Hayabusa is planning to complete 200 training jumps and has scheduled additional tunnel time in Paris, France, before the qualification event in June 2004. The training efforts depend directly on the financial situation of the team members. Hayabusa is a weekend team, and the individuals are fully responsible for the team's budget.

The Belgium skydiving association will cover the costs of the national team for the trip to Croatia this year. However, both teams have to win the qualification event first before this resource can be used.

The situation in Belgium is very interesting. NMPV has to rebuild the team and can count on the resources and the support provided by the Belgian Army. Hayabusa has limited resources and the same line-up with a lot of talent. Two of the current NMPV members already posted an 18.2 average at last year's world meet.

The two new NMPV members are coming from a 13.2 average level. The calculator says that NMPV would begin around a 15.7 average level. This is almost exactly the scoring level where Hayabusa finished the 2003 season. The numbers seem to promise a very exciting race for the qualification as the Belgian national team 2004.

The Hayabusa team members are fully aware of this situation. They are still realistic enough to see that the future will probably belong to the Army team with the better resources.

However, 2004 might become a great journey for the team that they plan to enjoy as much as possible. The stops on this journey alone are exciting enough. Hayabusa will once again fully participate in the Belgian and European Skydiving League events.

The qualification meet in June is one of the BSL/ESL competitions of the 2004 season. The NSL News will surely get back to the Belgian story at that time. Hayabusa has the French Cup and the Belgium national championship in July on the team schedule, as well.

Looking at the team's busy meet schedule, Hayabusa obviously knows and values a lot of competition experience. If training and meet practice work out well, then the season will not be over for Hayabusa before the end of September.

The trip to the world meet in Croatia could finish the 2004 Hayabusa season with a very happy ending. Another interesting aspect of the Belgian race between NMPV and Hayabusa to the Mediterranean coast is the fact that both teams are using DeLand Majik coaches.

Joey Jones is working his second season with the Army team, while Hayabusa hired Doug Park for the DeLand camp. One of the teams will definitely meet their coach in Croatia and compete against him. Who will it be?