posted Jul 21st, 2019 - It's the middle of the outdoor summer season in Europe, and several countries are hosting their national championships at this time of the year, following many earlier regional competitions as opportunities for teams to get their real competition practice.

Denmark started the series of national championships earlier this month, and another Scandinavian country will be next. Swedish teams are scheduled for their Round 1 on Monday morning.

The most exciting part of the Danish Nationals 2019 was the fact that the number of A Class teams is the highest one since 2010. Ten teams is the 2010 record number in this category that the Danish skydiving federation applies at the national championships. Four A Class teams had attended the event last year and in 2017, three teams in the AAA Class.

Seven A Class teams this year is fresh air for Denmark's 4-way community, especially as most of the names in the lineups are new. In fact, only one A Class team has a scoring history, which is a very impressive one though. FourDK have posted outdoor scores in Denmark every year since 2011.

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Danish Outdoor Nationals 2019		1	2	3	4	5	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	18,N,20	3,K,17	G,C,Q,E,L	12,F,D,22	9,M,14	Total	Avg
1	CISM Denmark	11	12	21	10	14	68	13.6
2	Phair Play	10	9	14	10	14	57	11.4
3	Sky4LL	10	10	12	10	14	56	11.2
4	Velocitas	7	9	10	8	10	44	8.8
Rank	A Class	J,E,F	19,A	21,D	M,O,4	P,8	Total	Avg
1	Subsonic	15	9	8	10	9	51	10.2
2	Sky Team	7	5	5	7	4	28	5.6
3	Hey Hallå	10	6	4	5	2	27	5.4
4	The Fours	4	4	5	3	5	21	4.2
5	FourDK	0	2	3	3	3	11	2.2
6	Team Tung og Elefant	2	2	2	2	1	9	1.8
7	Wind Riders	1	1	2	2	2	8	1.6

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The AAA Class has a new national champion. Denmark's military CISM lineup was back this year, after a 10-round thriller at the Danish Nationals 2018 that JustinTime had won by one single point. Martin Søeby Mikkelsen and John Pedersen, former VAF Warriors who competed for Denmark at international FAI events years ago, were back with their CISM 2019 lineup and won the national 4-way title this year without much trouble.

Veloce QRF 8-way expert and former Norwegian and Danish national 4-way team member Kjetil Nordin was visiting the Danish Nationals once again and tried to create at least some opposition with his Phare Play lineup. It turned out that Phare Play actually ended up in a 1-point battle with Sky4all for the 2nd place.

It was the first AAA Class competition for Sky4all with a new lineup. Nicholas Keller and Steffen Ramlyng were back from the A Class lineup of 2017 and 2018, and new members Vibeke Birk Tiedemann and Hans Linding Oksen are experienced AAA Class competitors. In fact, Hans Oksen was Kjetil Nordin's Pangaea team mate at the FAI World Meet 2014.

Velocitas was an all-female team in 2017 and 2018 and competed with a mixed-gender lineup at this year's national championships.

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Echochamber at the last training before the national championships

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Sweden is next, and the national 4-way teams, Echochamber in 4-way Open and Team X in 4-way Women, have to defend their titles. Neither of them have serious opposition in their categories.

Echochamber were probably watching the first scores from France very carefully. The competitive situation behind NMP PCH HayaBusa and Arizona Airspeed could bring the Swedish team into the position an underdog for FAI bronze medals. Echochamber was in 5th place behind the Qatar Tigers at the FAI World Meet 2018.

The outdoor lineup is the same as in 2018, with coach Mattias Nord back in the inside center slot. Echochamber have completed over 100 training jumps this year, after the end of the indoor season at the FAI Indoor World Meet, including a training camp with Niklas Hemlin in Arizona.

There was a setback though when Johan Edvall needed knee surgery in June. However, he has recovered in time for the national championships, and Echochamber is ready for their first outdoor scores of the year.