posted Jan 11th, 2024 - The third meet of the Czech indoor winter season featured the two currently strongest 4-way teams, Skywalkers Junior and HF Chameleons, back with their complete lineups and without double duties. Result was a new record average for the new 4-way seniors of the Skywalkers Junior. The reigning Czech national indoor and outdoor champions are slowly and consistently approaching the scoring level of the previously best Czech 4-way teams, HF Flying Circus and HF Cubs.

HF Flying Circus, the Czech 4-way Open Class team until 2022, have a 26.0 average in their records that they posted at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 in Charleroi, and the Skywalkers Junior have now arrived at the 24+ average level. The HF Cubs, Czech national team in 4-way Women, finished with a 28.5 average at the same event and won the FAI gold medals.

HF Cubs and Skywalkers Junior both grew out of Jan Klapka's 4-way junior school, while HF Flying Circus were already seniors in 4-way Open Class competition when they became the national indoor and outdoor team for several years and until October 2022. The HF Cubs attended their last competition at the 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championship in Slovakia last year, and there were no plans for the team's near future at that time. Jan Klapka had hopes that the 4-way Women team would also transition to outdoor competition, which has not materialized yet.

World Tunnel League January 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		13,7,14	9,Q,20	19,12,10	K,A,P,3	C,D,B,6	F,17,15	22,G,2	4,O,8	H,E,18,21	L,J,16,11	Total	Avg
1	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	20	29	19	29	34	28	19	21	24	19	242	24.2
2	HF Chameleons	CZ	18	26	17	25	34	23	19	20	23	21	226	22.6
3	Crazy Dragons	CZ	19	15	15	23	29	18	15	14	17	17	182	18.2
4	Kiss My Grips	SK	13	16	11	15	16	11	11	13	14	13	133	13.3
5	M Team	CZ	14	14	11	9	19	8	12	11	15	15	128	12.8
6	Accord	CZ	11	14	10	14	17	12	11	10	14	11	124	12.4
7	Nächste Fenster	SK	10	14	9	14	14	11	10	5	9	11	107	10.7
Rank	AA Class		13,7	9,Q,20	19,14	K,A,P,21	C,D,B,6	F,15,1	22,G,2	4,O,8	H,E,18	L,J,11	Total	Avg
1	HF Helicopters	CZ	13	13	10	12	16	10	10	10	11	10	115	11.5
Rank	A Class		7,21	9,Q	19,8	K,A,P	C,D,B	F,6	G,2	4,O	H,E,M	L,J,N	Total	Avg
1	Sharks	CZ	13	19	9	17	15	14	10	20	12	11	140	14.0
2	Unicorns	CZ	10	17	8	15	19	11	8	10	17	10	125	12.5
Rank	Rookie		H,G,L	Q,O,M	E,J,F	K,A,P	C,D,B	F,N,Q	G,K,P	O,A,C	H,E,M	L,J,N	Total	Avg
1	HF Green	CZ	11	14	19	15	14	17	13	12	15	11	141	14.1
2	Dycky Most	CZ	10	15	17	10	10	12	8	13	18	10	123	12.3

The HF Cubs still decided eventually to continue as a team after spending tunnel time together in the 4-way school since 2015, and after winning indoor world championship and world cup titles with the current lineup since 2019. They had planned to restart with indoor 4-way training and competition this month and had the January meet of the Czech Tunnel League on their 2024 schedule.

The plan also included more intensive training to begin in September this year, with the next indoor world championship as the goal for 2025. It only became a false start due to illness before this week's indoor competition at the Hurricane Factory. The Cubs will probably be back in action at the next league event in February.

Skywalkers Junior and HF Cubs have never competed against each other so far, even though they have known each other for many years. The 4-way Women team had grown out of the junior category and before members of HF Flying Rebels and HF Chameleons joined forces to launch the Skywalkers Junior team.

HF Cubs, HF Flying Rebels and HF Chameleons competed together at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022, where the Cubs won FAI gold medals in 4-way Women, Flying Rebels and Chameleons gold and bronze in 4-way Junior. The three teams opposed each other at several AAA Class meets before. which the two junior teams attended for training purposes.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2022			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		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	HF Cubs	CZ	24		47	-2	24	-5	34	-2	23	-2	23		30		32		22		26	-1	285	28.5
2	Nephtys	FR	22		44	-1	28		33	-2	23		20	-1	29		29	-1	21	-1	23	-1	272	27.2
3	Piteraq	DE	19		37		23		30	-1	17	-2	17		24		21		16	-1	22		226	22.6
Rank	4-way Junior		E,F,P,J		C,O,G,11		18,H,22		B,L,D,13		19,Q,7		8,9		K,14,M		6,1		-		-		Total	Avg
1	HF Flying Rebels	CZ	54	-1	28	-1	20		29	-1	24	-2	25		23	-2	22		-		-		225	28.1
2	Aerokart Akdemie	FR	55	-1	23	-3	19		29	-2	20	-1	20	-2	23	-1	19	-2	-		-		208	26.0
3	HF Chameleons	CZ	45	-4	25		18		24		21	-2	24		20	-2	22	-1	-		-		199	24.9

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HF Cubs - HF Flying Rebels - HF Chameleons at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022, Video Footage Courtesy of Airspace Charleroi/InTime

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Members of all three former 4-way junior teams are now competing in the senior events, Skywalkers Junior in 4-way Open, HF Cubs in 4-way Women, with the exception of Filip Lukavec, who is still eligible for 4-way Junior events at the same time. He trains and competes outdoors with Skywalkers Junior, and he is also a member of HF Chameleons, the Czech national team in 4-way Junior.

The first senior showdown between HF Cubs and Skywalkers Junior is postponed until the February competition at the Hurricane Factory. Skywalkers Junior have an additional month to move closer to the HF Cubs. The 4-way Women seniors posted a 25.8 average at their last competition, the 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championship, where Michal Mikulisek, Krystof Rulf and Martin Stransky won with HF Flying Rebels and 23.6 in 4-way Junior (AA).

Skywalkers Junior now won the AAA Class competition at the Hurricane Factory with 24.2 and they have this additional month to lift the performance and scoring level closer to the HF Cubs. However, the 4-way Women team will not wait until the new 4-way seniors catch up. They will try to get to their own highest performance level of 28+ in the meantime. The HF Chameleons will join this internal Czech senior duel between Cubs and Skywalkers Junior and try to interfere as much as possible. The February competition at the Hurricane Factory will hopefully feature this Czech showdown and the comeback of the HF Cubs. All three teams will benefit from the pressure they put on each other and collect plenty of competition experiences.