posted Feb 28th, 2023 - The series of national indoor championships and other indoor events at this time of the year create a very similar situation as it used to be before any vertical wind tunnels were built and used for training and eventually competition.

National outdoor championships, regular meets of the National Skydiving League and any other 4-way events were the opportunities for teams to collect real competition experiences and compare their scores with each other before attending world championships and world cups.

Eleven countries have already completed their national indoor championships this winter (in alphabetical order: Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Great Britain, Finland, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Spain, United States), and there will be more coming before Round 1 of the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023 in April.

The NSL News has covered all the events with scores, videos and other updates, and two of the most recent events were completed in the Czech Republic, Spain and United States. The Czech teams have additional monthly meet opportunities, indoors and outdoors, together with some other countries who participate in the National Skydiving League 4-way network. They completed another 10-round competition in February, and the next one in March is coming up soon.

Czech Tunnel League February 2023		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	11,C,M,6	14,J,3	B,16,D,19	1,P,H,13	O,22,G,17	7,4,15	2,5,9	Q,E,L,21	20,10,A	F,12,8	Total	Avg
1	HF Cubs	26	22	25	29	25	24	22	29	21	22	245	24.5
2	HF Flying Circus	25	22	27	25	23	22	23	30	21	22	240	24.0
3	HF Flying Rebels	24	19	26	25	21	21	20	26	16	22	220	22.0
4	HF Chameleons	19	18	23	23	20	18	20	24	16	18	199	19.9
5	M Team	17	13	17	16	13	13	12	17	11	10	139	13.9
6	Accord	14	11	14	14	11	11	11	15	8	12	121	12.1

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HF Cubs - HF Flying Circus at the February meet of the Czech Tunnel League, video footage courtesy of Jan Klapka and Hurricane Factory Prague

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The February meet of the Czech Tunnel League was completed only two days before Round 1 of the Spanish Indoor Nationals, and the three Czech national indoor teams (HF Cubs in 4-way Women, HF Flying Circus in 4-way Open, HF Flying Rebels in 4-way Junior) posted scores for their next set of ten indoor meet rounds, together with the second 4-way Junior team, the HF Chameleons, and two more senior AAA Class teams.

Then the U.S. teams followed up another week later, where Arizona Airspeed provided more evidence for their currently dominating position in the 4-way world. Arizona Airspeed in 4-way Open and XPG4 in 4-way Women will represent the United States at the indoor world championship in Slovakia.

There is arguably no doubt that Arizona Airspeed is without any serious opposition in 4-way indoor and outdoor competition at this point in time. However, there are silver and bronze medals to win in 4-way Open, and the finish within the Top 10 of the world has been a topic for the NSL News for many years. The situation in the other 4-way events (Women - Junior) is less predictable when it comes to the top spot and FAI gold medals.

Spanish Indoor Nationals 2023			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		G,N,18,4	3,K,M,J	10,O,2	8,E,F,A	12,17,14	13,5,D	C,Q,21,20	6,B,9	16,11,1	19,7,15	Total	Avg
1	Papea 1	ES	24	31	21	30	19	24	25	33	23	25	255	25.5
Paraclete XP Indoor 2023			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/4-way Open/Women		15,14,5	19,9,1	10,J,17	M,B,G,E,F	3,18,4	Q,6,C,D	11,7,8	16,H,2	K,N,L,13	A,20,P,O	Total	Avg
5	XPG4	US	18	23	24	48	18	29	20	23	25	26	254	25.4

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Papea at the Spanish Indoor Nationals 2023 - XPG4 at the U.S. Indoor Nationals 2023, video footage courtesy of Windoor Barcelona and Paraclete XP

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HF Cubs and XPG4 are considered indoor top contenders in 4-way Women, and they will be direct opponents in the battle for FAI medals in Slovakia. The HF Cubs are still the reigning 4-way Junior world champions of 2019, and they won the 4-way Women competition at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 in Charleroi, as well.

The Czech 4-way Women team will probably be the top contender for the gold medals if they can return timely to the scoring and performance level of a year ago. They have been gaining momentum meet by meet this winter, knowing that the new outdoor world champions in their event, NFTO, will try to take away the top spot in 4-way Women. XPG4, NFTO and HF Cubs will post their scores for the first time on the same leaderboard and at the same location, after comparing their scores only indirectly so far.

At the same time, 4-way Open Class teams HF Flying Circus and Papea from Spain are looking back at the competition in Charleroi a year ago, where they were battling with each other within the Top 10 of the 4-way Open Class competition. Their rematch will probably create once again an exciting duel. The Czech, Spanish and U.S. teams had three different competition draws at their recent indoor events. Teams, competitors, coaches and audience have the opportunity to interpret the results accordingly.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA/Open/Women - Top 10		O,18,14		L,C,F,9		1,J,H,19		3,E,P,Q		20,7,16		2,13,8		17,D,6		N,22,A,G		12,5,11		M,21,4		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	29		54	-3	35		41		29		25		39		37		27		30		346	34.6
2	Aerokart Monaco Akdemie	FR	25	-1	58		28	-3	39	-2	25		25		33		32		24		28	-2	317	31.7
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	23	-1	54	-1	30	-1	38	-2	26		23		32		31	-1	24		28	-1	309	30.9
4	HF Cubs	CZ	24		47	-2	24	-5	34	-2	23	-2	23		30		32		22		26	-1	285	28.5
5	ISR FireFlash	BE	22	-1	41	-4	27	-2	36		22	-1	21		31		28		21	-1	27		276	27.6
6	Nephtys	FR	22		44	-1	28		33	-2	23		20	-1	29		29	-1	21	-1	23	-1	272	27.2
7	Skydive Midwest NEXT	US	22		44		28		30	-2	20	-1	22		26	-1	27		20	-1	24		263	26.3
8	HF Flying Circus	CZ	21	-1	39	-3	27	-2	33	-1	20	-2	21		28	-1	27	-1	21		23	-2	260	26.0
9	Meraki	UK	19	-1	43		25	-1	30	-1	23		20		26		27		20		24		257	25.7
10	Papea Masculino	ES	20	-1	41	-1	26	-2	31		21	-1	17	-2	25	-1	27	-1	21		24		253	25.3

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HF Cubs - HF Flying Circus - Papea at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 - Footage Courtesy of FAI/ISC/Airspace Charleroi

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