posted Jun 10th, 2019 - So far, last weekend's leaderboard features teams of the Arizona Skydiving League and from Germany. The annual Paranodon Cup attracted a total of 12 teams who completed ten rounds over the weekend. Only the A Class teams did not get to Round 10.

The Qatar Tigers start a summer training camp at Paranodon today and missed the meet just by a few days. There would have been no serious competition for the world class 4-way team. However, the German teams have the top positions on the international leaderboard in all three categories at this point, which may still change after the scores of the British teams have been added.

It was a fierce battle for the 1st place in the AAA Class where three teams went neck to neck throughout the first five rounds. In fact, Arizona Skydiving League team AZ Defiance was a part of this exciting race, as well. Titten + Bier lost touch with the top of the leaderboard in Round 6 and could not recover from the loss. The 10.8 average was still the team's first 10+ average in the AAA Class.

Some of the most experienced German Formation Skydiving competitors took the two top positions. Paranodon member Thomas Spielvogel is still training and competing with the German national 8-way team, Airbus, and he also competed with with one half of the 8-way team, Paranodon Bardarbunga, at last year's national championships.

---

NSL Meet Weekend June 8th, 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		22,13,Q	11,6,E	F,K,L,18	20,J,M,15	16,12,7	O,C,17,2	A,3,4	8,P,B,14	G,1,10	9,N,H,5	Total	Avg
1	Paranodon 2019	DE	11	11	12	12	10	12	10	10	8	15	57	11.1
2	Dark Energy	DE	10	12	12	12	9	13	11	7	10	14	55	11.0
3	Titten und Bier	DE	10	12	11	10	11	8	10	11	8	13	54	10.4
4	AZ Defiance	US	10	11	14	8	9	12	-	-	-	-	52	10.7
5	Air-W	CH	9	8	8	11	8	8	9	10	9	9	44	8.9
6	Jerry's Kidz	US	8	7	8	9	9	9	-	-	-	-	41	8.3
6	Arizona Windfall	US	6	8	10	8	9	-	-	-	-	-	41	8.2
8	Cors	DE	8	9	9	6	6	9	7	8	6	9	38	7.7

---

This time, Thomas Spielvogel teamed up again with his first and original 4-way team mate and mentor, Jan Rojek. Both together won the German 4-way title for their first time in 1988, together with Alwin Ampssler and Kurt Gaebel. They also picked up the 8-way gold medals at the same event. Thomas Spielvogel is still winning German national championship titles 30 years later, last time in 8-way at the German Nationals 2018.

Paranodon's 2019 lineup also included Robert Trögele who grew up together with Thomas Spielvogel and Jan Rojek as a 4-way and 8-way competitor, only in different teams. His son Andreas Trögele is filming the German national 8-way team and is also usually on camera for his father's Paranodon team. He had different plans this time.

His own son Julius Trögele, who continues the family's Formation Skydiving tradition in the third generation, is training and competing with the youngest Paranodon team in the A Class, who were missing a team member for the Paranodon Cup. Andreas Trögele gave up the camera slot for his father's team and filled in as the point for the Paranodon Futura team.

All of his team mates last weekend were also his AFF students at some point in time, and Andreas Trögele enjoyed to perform together with them and in front of the camera this time. He could also celebrate his son Julius' 100th skydive in Round 10. Tail Steffi Höcherl has a total of 45 jumps, and outside center Felix Pfeiffer is at 70 jumps. Team videographer Marcel Abt is not far ahead with a total of 120 Sprünge and 12 on camera. He gets professional and first-hand camera feedback from Andreas Trögele.

---

Paranodon Cup 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		22,13,Q	11,6,E	F,K,L,18	20,J,M,15	16,12,7	O,C,17,2	A,3,4	8,P,B,14	G,1,10	9,N,H,5	Total	Avg
1	Paranodon 2019	DE	11	11	12	12	10	12	10	10	8	15	111	11.1
2	Dark Energy	DE	10	12	12	12	9	13	11	7	10	14	110	11.0
3	Titten und Bier	DE	10	12	11	10	11	8	10	11	8	13	104	10.4
4	Air-W	CH	9	8	8	11	8	8	9	10	9	9	89	8.9
5	Cors	DE	8	9	9	6	6	9	7	8	6	9	77	7.7
Rank	AA Class		22,13	11,6	F,K,L,18	20,J,M	Q,E,7	O,C,2	A,15,4	8,P,B	G,1,14	9,N,H	Total	Avg
1	Paranodon Futura	DE	8	11	11	10	12	11	15	13	12	14	117	11.7
2	Bauer Tim	AT	7	9	8	12	10	13	13	13	12	17	114	11.4
3	Spontaneous 4	DE	5	6	7	10	9	11	11	9	8	13	89	8.9
4	ZX-RW	DE	4	7	7	6	7	7	7	3	4	9	61	6.1
Rank	A Class		21,N	6,D	F,K,L	B,J,M	Q,E,7	O,C,2	A,H,4	8,P	G,19	9,N	Total	Avg
1	Connected 4	DE	9	11	8	7	8	9	10	19	8	-	89	9.9
2	Paranodon Futura	DE	8	8	6	7	6	10	7	16	8	-	76	8.4
3	4-Fingers	DE	5	6	5	7	6	8	3	11	8	-	59	6.6

---

Andreas Trögele said that it feels somehow strange not to be on camera at all at a competition. However, he will move back to his slot behind the camera for Airbus.

The third Paranodon team, Futura in the AA Class, are back with last year's lineup and have moved up from the A Class. They had won last year's A Class title at the German national championships with a 16.1 average. Last weekend's 11.7 average in the AA Class is already higher than the 2018 winning average in the same category.

The Paranodon 2019 seniors fended off Dark Energy, who had placed 4th as a guest team at the German Nationals 2018 and then won bronze medals for the German delegation at the ESL Championship 2018. It was the team's third different lineup last weekend. Only Veloce QRF 8-way members Petra Bärenfänger and Henning Stumpp, who is the president of the German skydiving federation, competed at all three events for Dark Energy in 4-way.

Air-W from Switzerland and Bauer Tim from Austria gave the Paranodon Cup 2019 an international atmosphere on site. The Swiss team have visited Illertissen every year since 2015 and moved through the three competition classes between 2015 and 2017.