posted May 3rd, 2021 - The completion of the Shamrock Showdown Cloud's 8-way leaderboard after Round 4 was delayed for a week, after the preview of the Tanay 8 videos became available on April 25th. The complete judging panel was not available at the same time, as InTime's Claire King and Dirk Venter had to take a care of another event first.

The South African Nationals 2021 was a live event, 120 kilometers away from the InTime headquarters in Johannesburg. They spent the whole week at the dropzone of the Johannesburg Skydiving Club in Carletonville and are now ready to resume the judging of the exciting 8-way competition of the Shamrock Showdown with the same judging panel.

The South African 4-way title went to Savolo again, who won with the same lineup as in 2018 and 2019. Claire King and Dirk Venter did not compete at any of the national championships, as their own team, Jazz Republic, shares two members with Savolo (Paul Marcellin, Colin Rothman) mutually. As a result of this cooperation, Jazz Republic have only attended indoor meets since 2015, while Savolo's last indoor competition was the World Challenge 2017.

Savolo has competed for South Africa at all outdoor world meets since 2012 and missed only the last one in Australia 2018. Savolo had won the national championships the same year, while Meraki traveled to Australia for the world meet.

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South African Nationals 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,6,O		16,J,9		5,D,20		H,19,21		L,12,E,P		4,A,G,11		15,F,M,7		K,17,1		2,N,8		22,14,Q		Total	Avg
1	Savolo	12	-3	13	-3	16		12	-2	13	-3	13	-2	19		13	-1	13	-1	12		136	13.6
2	Ascension	7	-1	9	-2	5	-1	10	-1	8		11		10	-1	8		9		8		85	8.5
3	Aerium	9		10	-1	4	-3	6	-3	9		9	-1	12		9		9		7	-1	84	8.4

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Savolo battled more with the exit from an Atlas Angel this year than with anything else. However, there was an extremely exciting battle going on behind the winner. It was not on the world's top level that Claire King and Dirk Venter are currently serving with the judging system on the Shamrock Showdown Cloud.

It was still a thriller that ended with a 1-point difference after ten rounds. Round 10 was literally a jump-off situation for the two South African teams, as they were tied after Round 9. Claire King and Dirk Venter witnessed the complete competition and had more details yesterday when they accepted an invitation for a new NSL Live Talk conversation.

They explained that the bronze medalists of Aerium attended only their second competition in the AAA/Open Class. The Ascension opponents had the more experienced AAA competitors in their lineup, while they could not train before the meet. One team member had a knee surgery at the end of last year, and the national championship was the team's comeback event.

Aerium was still competing in the Rookie Class in 2018 and won the national championship with Bootielicous and an 11+ average. Savolo member Amy Kirtland was the team's player-coach by then.

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Savolo - Ascension - Aerium at the South African Nationals 2021

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The team then recruited Andre Yorke from the team that finished in 2nd place the same year (Hokus Pokus). He replaced Amy Kirtland, and they changed the team name to Aerium. Amy Kirtland continued to work with the team, and the new lineup won the AA/Intermediate Class title in 2019. As many other countries in the world, South Africa did not have a national outdoor championship in 2020, and last week's event was the comeback for all 4-way teams. Savolo is now the old and new national 4-way team and could represent South Africa at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August.

Claire King and Dirk Venter discussed the situation of the world meet during the NSL Live Talk, as well, even though there were not much of any news to report from Russia at this point in time. The situation after Round 4 on the Shamrock Showdown Cloud's 8-way leaderboard was the more contemporary topic, after the update from the South African Nationals 2021.

The InTime judging panel is planning to take on the first four rounds of the Tanay 8-way team today, which will complete the 8-way leaderboard. The Qatar Tigers also submitted some additional 4-way rounds, which will be added to the leaderboard, as well.