posted Sep 3rd, 2009 - Thursday morning it is at the FAI World Cup 2009, and everything is still perfectly on track so far, despite a few little problems with the weather. All Formation Skydiving events have completed their six rounds, and today's weather is promising so far.

The French national team in the 4-way category, Aerokart Deep Blue Maubeuge, arrived this morning at the drop zone and faced a surprise - the tent had crashed. Sabotage? The only way to disrupt the impressive performance? Nothing can stop the team that likes to laugh a lot, the tent was back up quickly.

The two German female lineups, Chicas and Incognito Leutkirch, are too far away from France to benefit from any distraction of Deep Blue. They are also too involved in their own battle, which changed direction once again yesterday evening.

Incognito won the first round over the Chicas and reduced the difference to three points. The silver medals are back in reach for the young German ladies who love the fast sequences. It was no big surprise that they took advantage of their passion for speed in Round 6.

However, the Chicas are too experienced to become nervous. They also know that the next three rounds will slow down everybody's pace. A 3-point difference is still not very much, and it needs to be defended carefully. The competition in the female category is still very exciting.

The French national team in the Open Class, Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge, added another highscore to the team account. Hayabusa Defence could not even take advantage of their own passion for speed and had to accept the next French victory for a round. France has won every single round so far and is nine points ahead after six rounds.

Round 6 had a total damage of nine points (Black Cat - 2, Kaktus Hunter - 2, Evolution - 2, Magic 4 - 1, Bad Boys - 1, Turkey - 1). The penalty party of Round 5 obviously calmed down to a normal level.

The CamScore services make it easy for the judges to push the buttons and oversee the procedures. The NSL News heard only good things from teams and officials. Yesterday was Andrew Mansfield's birthday, and he was working all day long. Happy Birthday, Andy.

Two very quiet teams in Protejov have been making their moves in the last rounds. The NSL News mentioned already earlier that the Pro Team from Finland cleared off Norway's Nexus with a stellar Round 5. The Pro Team continued on the same path in Round 6 and outscored Vertigo and Magic 4 to take the 11th place alone. It seems as if Finland will win the unofficial Scandinavian championship this year.

Then there is Sinapsi, bronze medalist at the World Meet 2006 in Germany. Pete Allum, Livio Piccolo and Luca Marchioro competed for Sinapsi in 2006. Steve Hamilton is now in Arianna de Benedetti's Center Outside slot.

Sinapsi has been close to the top of the leaderboard from the beginning of the meet without making much noise. The Italian team has been warming up round by round and is now tied with Black Cat in 3rd place.

Sinapsi had a similar battle with the other Russian top team, the Sky Panthers, at the World Meet in 2006. Sinapsi won and took the bronze medals. This time it is Black Cat trying to win the bronze medals for Russia.

Actually, Sinapsi is dealing with two Russian teams, as Skylight Barkli is only three points behind. Three of the Sky Panthers in 2006 are in Skylight Barkli's lineup. It will be a very interesting race for the bronze medals.