posted Jan 16th, 2019 - The busy start of the 2019 competition season included two meets of the World Tunnel League, one in Finland , the other one in the Czech Republic. A total of 24 teams posted their scores on their own national leaderboards, and the synchronized competition draws brought all of them together on the combined leaderboard, as well.

The AAA Class competition featured a very exciting battle between two internationally up and coming 4-way teams. In fact, Pro Team and HF Flying Circus have already represented their countries as national teams, the team from Finland for over a decade.

Flying Circus eventually left behind the previous Czech national 4-way team, HF Bad Boys, while the Pro Team has always been the strongest 4-way team in Finland whenever they were active. The new and youngest team member Kalle Pohjola, Kimmo Pohjola's son, has apparently injected new energy and motivation into the Finnish team from Rovaniemi at the Arctic Circle.

The Czech father and son, Jan and Jakub Klapka, have been opponents instead, which has been just as stimulating for HF Flying Circus and HF Bad Boys. They were once again twice on the same leaderboards in January, and son Jakub Klapka won both meets with his team. Father Jan Klapka said that he is very proud of his son's progression.

World Tunnel League January 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		Q,E,F,18	3,9,11	D,K,21,16	14,G,M,17	O,L,B,7	5,15,6	P,A,12,20	C,13,1	10,8,N	22,J,H,4	Total	Avg
1	Pro Team	FI	34	20	27	24	37	23	19	23	20	21	248	24.8
2	HF Flying Circus	CZ	34	21	23	25	39	19	21	22	21	21	246	24.6
3	HF Bad Boys	CZ	31	21	22	23	33	19	21	19	19	19	227	22.7
4	HF Cubs	CZ	29	19	20	19	31	17	17	18	16	21	207	20.7
5	HF Chicks	CZ	29	19	19	20	29	17	15	15	16	20	199	19.9
6	Skydive University Slovakia	SK	24	17	20	19	27	15	16	16	16	18	188	18.8
7	Blackjack	FI	28	13	19	19	29	15	16	16	15	16	186	18.6
8	Tempo	FI	23	17	21	19	26	15	15	17	14	17	184	18.4
9	Telakka	FI	24	17	19	18	24	13	16	16	14	16	177	17.7
10	Sky....	CZ	20	14	18	18	29	15	14	15	14	15	172	17.2
11	Silver Knights	FI	18	13	16	17	24	15	14	14	13	16	160	16.0
12	M Team	CZ	19	11	14	13	21	10	10	14	11	14	137	13.7
13	Accord	CZ	16	11	13	15	21	11	9	12	7	13	128	12.8

Pro Team - HF Flying Circus - HF Bad Boys performing the WTL January competition

The power of father Kimmo and son Kalle Pohjola in the same team was apparently two points stronger than the Czech generational drive of the HF Flying Circus against the HF Bad Boys.

The duel of the two best teams in their respective countries was the highlight of the combined January leaderboard.

It will not be too long until the same two teams will face each other directly. The NSL News had reported earlier that HF Flying Circus had the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019 at Weembi Lille on their 2019 meet schedule.

Father Jan Klapka will also travel to France to lead the Czech delegation and guide the HF Junior Cubs to their next set of FAI medals.

The latest news from Finland confirmed that the Pro Team will compete at Weembi, as well, and both teams will probably be just as close to each other as they were on the WTL January leaderboard. They will have another opportunity to challenge each other indirectly in March, when both leagues have scheduled WTL meets. The World Challenge 2019 is also taking place before the FAI Indoor World Meet, and both teams have visited Bedford several times.

FAI Indoor World Meet 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		16,P,12	2,8,H	22,20,3	15,D,4	A,J,6,L	7,M,19	5,Q,21	18,B,17	G,14,C,N	K,E,10,11	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	30	29	25	30	47	33	34	34	37	28	327	32.7
2	Weembi High Rollers	FR	30	29	26	30	41	35	32	32	37	28	320	32.0
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	29	28	24	29	41	32	27	31	35	26	302	30.2
4	Black Cat	RU	30	27	24	30	39	34	32	28	33	25	302	30.2
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	28	21	24	27	36	31	23	27	29	26	272	27.2
6	Satori XL	UK	23	23	21	21	38	29	25	26	32	23	261	26.1
6	Echochamber	SE	24	24	22	25	34	28	27	28	28	21	261	26.1
8	Amnesya Fly-In	IT	25	21	18	23	29	28	24	22	31	20	241	24.1
9	Papea Spain	ES	24	20	18	21	29	26	23	21	26	20	228	22.8
10	Inlaws	CA	23	22	17	21	31	28	20	20	22	18	222	22.2
11	HF Bad Boys	CZ	21	20	17	20	32	21	22	21	23	22	219	21.9
12	China 4-way Gold	CN	19	18	16	18	26	22	19	18	22	20	198	19.8
13	Monaco	MC	17	15	14	15	22	21	19	15	21	17	176	17.6
14	Bahrain	BH	10	13	11	11	17	19	12	8	16	12	129	12.9

The NSL News mentioned before that HF Flying Circus has the potential to position the Czech Republic for the first time in the Top 10 of the FAI leaderboard in April. The Finnish team's plans to travel to Lille make the competition for a Top 10 spot even more exciting, as the current scores are predicting.

Finland did not have a team at the last FAI Indoor World Meet in Montreal 2017, while the HF Bad Boys finished in 11th place for the Czech Republic. Pro Team and HF Flying Circus both could push a few other teams behind the Top 10 benchmark.

On the other hand, the Swiss team Airheads is making a very strong push upward towards the world's Top 10, and Germany is on the same track with the new Airforce indoor team. In fact, Airheads (28.2) and Airforce (25.6) both have posted higher indoor averages last year than Pro Team and HF Flying Circus last week.

Then there is also China with a very strong 4-way team that posted a 24.7 average at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2017 in Bahrain. Pro Team and HF Flying Circus have to keep pushing each other to be ready for the Top 10 battle at Weembi in April...