posted Jan 23rd, 2024 - The SkyVenture New Hampshire Tunnel Fest 2024 took place at the same time when the Hurricane Factory in Prague hosted this year's national open indoor championship. However, both events needed their own separate competition draws, as the 4-way teams in New Hampshire perform their ten sequences in a 12-foot flying chamber and apply different dive pools, compared to the 14-foot chamber in Prague.

The competition in the Czech Republic featured once again the duel between Skywalkers Junior, reigning national outdoor champions, and HF Chameleons, the Czech national team in 4-way Junior (AA). Skywalkers Junior have been the strongest Czech indoor team while the HF Cubs have been in hibernation.

The situation with a 4-way junior team winning the national AAA Class championship title is even new in the Czech Republic, where Jan Klapka and the 4-way junior teams have been creating a very powerful 4-way foundation for years. The Czech senior 4-way teams still dominated the national indoor championships for four years after Jan Klapka launched the event in 2016. Bad Boys won the first three national indoor titles, followed by HF Flying Circus in 2019, while the 4-way junior teams were preparing for their anticipated takeover. The HF Cubs were the first top team generated by Jan Klapka's 4-way junior school. They won the national indoor AAA Class title in 2020, a year after they had won the FAI world championship gold medals in 4-way Junior at Weembi Lille in 2019. However, they had already been training the AAA Class dive pool for a few years before becoming 4-way seniors and winning the national indoor championships.

Czech Open Indoor Championship 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		D,M,10,14		2,P,N,K		16,G,J,21		L,E,9,5		7,C,F,8		20,15,3		1,19,B		O,22,4		13,A,11		Q,6,17		Total	Avg
1	HF Chameleons	CZ	22	-1	26	-2	26	-2	32		29	-1	22		23		23		24		29		256	25.6
2	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	26		32		25		31		29		19	-2	25		24		15	-6	28	-1	254	25.4
3	Crazy Dragons	CZ	19	-4	30		24		26	-2	28	-1	19		24		18	-1	23		25		236	23.6
4	Nächste Fenster	SK	13		16		15		15		16		10		13		12	-1	14		14		138	13.8
5	M Team	CZ	14		13		14		14		17		8	-2	11		12		12		13		128	12.8

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HF Chameleons - Skywalkers Junior at the Czech Open Indoor Championship 2024

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HF Cubs moved up into 4-way Women competition a year after the world championship in 2019 and won the Czech senior title in 2020, then the 4-way Women gold medals at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 in Charleroi. They defended the national indoor title successfully twice in 2022 and 2023 before taking a longer break.

The HF Cubs came out of the Czech 4-way junior school, and they had already turned into 4-way Women competitors when they won their first national indoor 4-way Open/AAA title in 2020. They did not try to defend their title last weekend, even though they have plans for a comeback in 4-way competition.

The absence of the HF Cubs allowed the two currently top indoor teams in the Czech Republic, Skywalkers Junior and HF Chameleons, to battle for the Czech national indoor title in the AAA Class, even though they have arrived at the scoring level where they could also become a serious threat for the HF Cubs. This situation created the unique fact that the national team in 4-way Junior, HF Chameleons, defeated the defending 4-way senior champions, Skywalkers Junior, and combined the 4-way junior and 4-way senior titles for the first time.

Czech Open Indoor Championship 2023			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		20,15,E	7,N,C,5	6,11,16	H,12,1,3	1,18,J	Q,K,19,9	M,8,G,10	O,14,D,4	17,L,22	3,B,F,A	Total	Avg
1	HF Cubs	CZ	27	30	23	22	26	33	22	27	22	38	270	27.0
2	HF Flying Circus	CZ	23	31	22	20	23	29	24	24	21	36	253	25.3
3	HF Flying Rebels	CZ	20	27	20	19	21	26	20	25	21	34	233	23.3
4	Bronteroc	HU	18	26	19	19	21	24	19	22	20	29	217	21.7
5	HF Chameleons	CZ	20	25	19	20	20	24	17	22	16	30	213	21.3
6	4 V Tunelu	CZ	12	20	13	15	15	17	14	16	8	22	152	15.2
7	Fire Phoenix	IT	11	17	13	14	10	16	14	12	12	16	135	13.5
8	M Team	CZ	10	13	12	13	10	13	12	12	8	14	117	11.7

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HF Cubs - HF Flying Circus at the Czech Open Indoor Championship 2023

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Skywalkers Junior lost the 2-point battle in only one single round. They had an 8-point lead going into Round 9 and then lost six points due to infringements, giving away the round by nine points. Two more point deductions in Round 10 followed, and the HF Chameleons accomplished a new and unique record in the sport.

HF Chameleons are still eligible for the 4-way Junior category at the next indoor world championship in 2025. Jan Klapka plans to win the next FAI gold medals for the Czech Republic in this category, while Skywalkers Junior will be facing much stronger opposition in 4-way Open, where they can measure up with the best 4-way teams in the world.

HF Chameleons and Skywalkers Junior both finished with new team record averages. The NSL News mentioned on January 11th that Skywalkers Junior would have another extra month to match the 25.8 scoring level of the HF Cubs and be ready for a postponed showdown next month, after the 24.2 at the January meet of the Czech Tunnel League. The 25.4 average last weekend is showing Skywalkers Junior on track. HF Cubs and Skywalkers Junior will have additional opposition with the even more improved HF Chameleons. On top of this exciting competition, the Crazy Dragons, with former HF Flying Rebels member Denisa Jeziakova, keep picking up the pace and increased their scoring level from 21.0 in December to 23.6 last weekend. There could even be four Czech teams on a very similar scoring level on the AAA Class leaderboard next month.