posted Mar 19th, 2021 - It was a slow start for the Shamrock Showdown 2021 on Friday morning at Skydive City. The first load made it successfully into the Florida skies before strong winds on the backside of the passing weather system caused the first weather hold.

It was the fast Round 1 in 8-way that generated the first scores and videos on the leaderboard. Airspeed XP8 followed up on the 28-pointer with 23 for the sequence with five random formations a few hours later. The 24 for Round 3 and the 19 in Round 4 had the U.S. national 8-way team finish with a strong 23.5 average at the end of the first 8-way day.

The meet switched to 4-way after Round 4 in 8-way, even though Sandbaggers still have to add the team's score and video for their 4th round to the leaderboard tomorrow morning.

The remainder of the day will be used for 4-way competition, the event that has traditionally the prize money on stake. Skydive City ($1,500) and Formation Skydiving fan Vidar Antonsen ($200) joined for a total of $1,700 in the jackpot. Rounds 6 to 10 each will have a $200 prize for the team with the best round after handicap.

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Shamrock Showdown 2021 on Friday morning

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The first five rounds in 4-way may even be completed on Friday, despite the slow start in the morning. The handicap for each team will be assigned after Round 5, and the first winners of the cash prizes per round will be announced tomorrow after Round 6. Arizona Airspeed will most likely cash in once again on the $700 for the winner of the AAA Class competition.

The judging operation and cooperation between Jim Rees at Skydive City and InTime's Claire Kink and Dirk Venter in South Africa is running smoothly. Scores and videos both have been posted timely and were available for the participating teams before they would go to the boarding area for the next round.

Scores and videos both were also posted and became available at the same time for the worldwide online audience.

Round 1 in 4-way was not as fast as for the 8-way teams. The video for the fastest 4-way sequence will still be available today. Joey Marshall explained some of the details while his team mates Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine competed in 8-way with Airspeed XP8. Chris Kuhlmann is also in the air as the player-coach for Sandbaggers.

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Start of 4-way competition on Friday afternoon

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