posted Mar 22nd, 2024 - The aftermath of the Shamrock Showdown 2024 will still continue for a while, and the NSL News will also try to catch up with other events that happened in the meantime.

Even though the outdoor event at Skydive DeLand in Florida was once again featuring world class competition, including the currently two best 4-way teams in the world and FAI medal winners in 4-way Women, there was not too much suspense on the leaderboard, as the teams maintained respectful distances between each other. It was the Skins Game of the Shamrock Showdown that still generated more than enough excitement round by round, as the NSL News reported on March 18th.

The leaderboard of Switzerland's Indoor Nationals 2024 featured the opposite situation, as Realfly Fire and Airheads had no intention to save the opponents from too much trouble. Similar intention was surely in the Shamrock Showdown teams' game plans, as well, while the current scoring reality created the distances.

Realfly Fire and Airheads battled it out in Switzerland through all ten rounds, and they needed an extra round to break their tie. Realfly Fire won Round 11 and defeated Airheads for the first time. Three former and current 4-way Women teams finished behind the two top contenders, and the two Swiss teams, Airdrops and WingX, competed for the Swiss bronze medals. Airheads had represented Switzerland at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2018 in Australia and the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019 at Weembi Lille, where they placed 5th with a historic Swiss 29.2 record average.

Switzerland Indoor Nationals 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		L,3,15	8,Q,17	6,10,M	J,C,20,4	13,5,H	19,K,N,E	B,A,9,16	14,1,21	O,7,F,18	12,11,G	2,P,D,22	Total	Avg
1	Realfly Fire	CH	20	22	23	22	22	28	28	20	25	18	23	228	22.8
2	Airheads	CH	21	20	20	23	22	27	27	19	29	20	21	228	22.8
3	Skynamite	DE	20	20	22	21	22	30	26	17	26	18	-	222	22.2
4	Airdrops	CH	18	21	21	21	20	22	25	17	24	16	-	205	20.5
5	WingX	CH	17	19	17	21	19	25	25	17	21	15	-	196	19.6
6	Air-W	CH	14	16	15	11	15	16	20	15	19	13	-	154	15.4
7	FeGi-HU	CH	9	9	13	8	12	11	15	9	10	5	-	101	10.1

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Realfly Fire - Airheads at the Swiss Indoor Nationals 2024

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Airheads continued without much indoor or outdoor training at all, while Realfly Fire launched their indoor project in 2019. They met first time at the Swiss Indoor Nationals 2021, as the NSL News reported on after the event, where Airheads were still quite far ahead (247 - 235).

Airheads even increased the distance at the next national indoor championship in March 2023 (279 - 240). However, Airheads had no plans for representing Switzerland at the next indoor world championship, and Realfly Fire competed in Slovakia last year.

Realfly Fire's opportunity to win their first national 4-way title came when Airheads' inside center Alain Sigrist was not available for this year's event. His team began training with a new young Swiss competitor, who dislocated his shoulder just hours before Round 1 of the national indoor championship.

CISM competitor Stephan Lehner was on site and ready to step in, after only the speed-setting flying time to become familiar with Airheads and the outside center slot, which was also new to him. The improvised Airheads situation created an exciting competition, including guest team Skynamite from Germany and their Airheads member Marco Keller with double duties.

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Skynamite - Airdrops - WingX at the Swiss Indoor Nationals 2024

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Skynamite finished ahead of the two Swiss 4-way Women teams, Airdrops and WingX, who battled for the Swiss bronze medals. Skynamite skipped the German Indoor Nationals, which took place on the same weekend. Their Swiss team mate Marco Keller had to be in Winterthur for his double duties with Airheads.

The three German Skynamite members actually posted a higher meet average in Switzerland than their former 4-way Women opponents of Meltemi Oceanside Illertissen at the same time in Berlin. Former Skynamite member Shaline Dincher is now training and competing with the Airbus 8-way team.

Airdrops, currently the Swiss national indoor team in 4-way Women, won the Swiss duel for the bronze medals by nine points over WingX. Airdrops had competed for Switzerland at the 4th FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championship and resumed 4-way indoor competition ten months later, first at the Wind Games, followed by the national indoor championship. Airdrops were pleased with their first 20+ average that was not boosted by a Super Sequence. They went straight back to indoor training with coach Pete Allum on an even higher level of motivation after the competition. Airdrops have made plans until the next indoor world championship at Paraclete XP in 2025. However, they still have to stay ahead of WingX to qualify as the Swiss national team.