posted Jul 4th, 2005 - Round three of the 4-way Open competition was the round for the underdogs. The leaders after round two and three, Airspeed Velocity and DeLand Fire, could still not break their tie and have posted identical scores for each round so far. Airspeed Odyssey fell five points behind after several flaws and point deductions (2) in the fast sequence (K-A-3-F).

The winners of round three were Spa Hayabusa from Belgium and Team Fastrax. Hayabusa came first on DZ-TV and impressed with the highest score of 27 points. DeLand Fire and Airspeed Velocity had to deal with a brainlock (Fire) and a point deduction (Velocity). However, Hayabusa delivered a stellar performance and took the top position for this round.

Then came Team Fastrax. The first two rounds were not the most beautiful ones for the Mideast Skydiving League team. However, Fastrax had still managed to stay close enough to the top of the leaderboard. Round three was the final breakthrough for the ambitious team.

Fastrax had never won the highscore for a round at previous competitions with top contenders. However, the 22.8 meet average after six rounds at the last Mideast Skydiving League competition indicated that the intense Fastrax training agenda is showing results.

Round three at the Malevsky Cup 2005 gave the evidence for the progression of the team. Fastrax did not only beat the Hayabusa score with 28 points in time, the team also moved up and very close to the two leaders. Fastrax is now only one single point behind DeLand Fire and Airspeed Velocity.

Nobody knows yet if Fastrax will be able to stay close, challenge even harder or fall back. Fact is that the highscore in round three will build even more confidence in the Fastrax quarters after beating several world class teams in a round.

The French 4-way team of the Female class unexpectedly lost the second round to the very clean and consistent Ladybirds from Russia after a shaky performance. However, France was unimpressed and came back quick and easily in the next and faster round for a current 4-point lead.

The 4-way competition is over for today. However, the organizers went ahead with the original plan and sent the 8-way teams in the air for the first two rounds of the competition. France and Arizona Airspeed both looked sharp and clean in the opening round and took a 3-point lead over the Russian 8-way team. Italy pulled two points away from Germany for the fourth place after a 1-point deduction for Remscheid. Round two is in progress, and the scores will be posted later. Round one can already be viewed on NSL-TV.