posted Sep 14th, 2009 - Richard Head, Phobia's Center Outside, eventually provided the official meet report of the ESL Championship 2009 for the NSL News. His own team just tied the attendance record of the 2009 season with the 7th competition last weekend.

The Czech team Fast Arrows held this title alone so far. Phobia competed at the FAI World Cup 2009 in the Czech Republic where AA Class team Fast Arrows did not have a matching category.

Phobia saved the best for last a week after the World Cup and posted the team's highest meet average of the 2009 season at the ESL Championship 2009. The 14.3 average last weekend concludes the first Phobia season in the AAA Class competition. Richard Head comments the meet in Hibaldstow as an eye witness.

ESL Championship 2009

Written by Richard Head

The United Kingdom hosted the ESL Championship 2009 for the first time, with Target Skysports in Hibaldstow doing what they do best: completing the competition by lunch time on the 2nd day. 23 teams from 6 nations turned up to compete for the ESL Spirit, previously won by Belgium, the Netherlands and most recently the UK.

The sun shone on the European teams and South African guests for the first time in three years. The last two competitions had to be called after only three rounds due to wet and windy weather, but the UK broke with stereotype to display perfect jumping conditions. The UK and Netherlands were once again out in force in pursuit of the ESL Spirit, the ticket to hosting the competition next year.

In the AAA Class, UK team Satori stormed ahead once again, broke the UK national record with a 21.3 average, and equaled the UK single round record with a 35-pointer, showing their potential as the UK's national team ahead of the World Meet in Russia 2010.

On Satori's tails was 4XTT, officially from Belgium, a new team comprising Sven Ibens (formerly Spa Hayabusa), Wesley Claessens, Paul Hofstee (Dynamic Fource) and Jacco van Eerden who head back home to Belgium for the Belgian Nationals next week.

In third place was Norway's team Frost. Some of the team members are looking to be selected for the Norwegian national team for the World Meet in 2010.

A guest place was had by that of Voodoo from South Africa. In their current line up they are hoping to become the South African national team at their national championships in April 2010 and are using the Northern Hemisphere's summer to warm up their skydiving.

All other categories were dominated by teams from the Netherlands and the UK, with Dutch teams winning three of the four categories. In the AA Class, Dutch national champion Ignition continued with the team's form scoring another 11-point average to take gold, 11 points clear of returning team Empat Laki Laki.

A tense finish was had, as Empat Laki Laki was tied with UK team Random Vengence after Round 9. The atmosphere was exciting, as CamScore showed Round 10 split screened in the bar. Empat managed to push ahead early in the jump, going two points clear to take silver, with Random Vengeance taking the 3rd place.

A small field in the A Class meant all teams were guaranteed a medal, but this didn't dampen the enthusiasm for the jumps.

Again, the Dutch national champion Creeps took a 9-point lead over UK Nationals silver medalist team Slot Machines. The third place was had by scratch team PE, comprising two members from UK's A Class champion Unagi (Pete Mather and Jon Dundee) along with Simon Brentford and Paul Geary.

In the Rookie Class, UK's 2009 silver medalist Gr4vity could only manage to place second against a very strong Team Meo who posted with an impressive 14.4 average. Still, they managed to improve their average from 10.9 at the UK Nationals to 12.5 at the ESL Championship. The third place was taken by returning team Blue Rebels from Greece, with a strong 9.7 average.

Across the field it was good to see teams returning from previous years, as well as several scratch teams forming to help fill out the national squads. After the medals were handed out it was time to get down to what everyone had come for – the awarding of the ESL Spirit. Initial confusion over the new scoring system had the UK announced as the ESL Spirit winners. This mistake was later corrected in the bar to much cheering from the Dutch squad, who were compensated by a free drink each, courtesy of the DZ.

Under the old system, the total scores from the top two teams in each category were added together to get an overall score per nation. Under the new system, 10 points are awarded for a 1st place, 8 for 2nd, 6 for 3rd and 5 to 1 points for 4th down to 8th. Each nation is then awarded these points for the best four placing teams across all categories. The maximum score is 40 points if a delegation wins every catagory.

Under the new system, the Netherlands had three 1st places and a 2nd (38 points), while the UK only had one 1st, two 2nd places and a 3rd place giving a total of 32 points. The sword was won back by the Dutch delegation this year.

This new system was introduced to try and encourage more nations to turn up, as the sword can be won with a much smaller squad than before, and it gives equal worth to teams in every category, encouraging a varied squad. Previously, a high average AAA Class team could be worth two teams in a lower category. Hayabusa and Satori were particularly good examples.

Finally, special mention has to go to Kate Charters, the only judge for the entire meet after no foreign judges could be secured to help in the task. Her job was made much easier by the Cametrix system, but she still managed to judge all videos within 20 minutes after dubbing. Thanks, Kate, for all the points.

We are now looking forward to the ESL Championship 2010 in the Netherlands. Talk from the Dutch squad gave the impression that it is likely to be back at Texel next year, and we all look forward to visiting the windy isle again.