posted Jan 13th, 2010 - Teams and competitors are off today in Dubai, and the NSL News has time to catch up.

First of all, it seems to make no sense to continue with France and Canada as options for the same question in the NSL Poll. It is all between Airspeed and Hayabusa now. The poll is open again for all voters. There is still a competition between France and Canada for the 3rd place and the $10,000 though.

Then, Craig Girard uploaded two more Airspeed videos to YouTube. Rounds 4 and 5 are now available for reviews.

The larger frame and better quality allows the audience to take a closer look at the video of Round 4. That's the one where the judges apparently deducted a point for an infringement during the inter of Block 10 (Diamond - Bunyip), a penalty that nobody else saw and expected.

The sequence is a slot switcher (10-5-J) for the rear piece. Tail Mark Kirkby and Center Inside Andy Delk take turns in executing one of the most exciting moves for a team's Tail.

They both do it differently, which may be the reason why the judges did not accept one of the moves.

Mark Kirkby is the original Airspeed Tail and has done the same move hundreds of times in his career, while the tail slot of Block 10 is the B-slot for Andy Delk.

Technically, both were doing almost exactly the same move in Round 5, page by page. From the judging perspective, there is no doubt that neither Mark Kirkby nor Andy Delk has an "assisting handhold" within the piece at any time during the inter.

However, Mark Kirkby keeps his arm and hand far away from his piece partners body all the way to the very end when he has to take a grip for the completion of the Bunyip.

Andy Delk is doing the same with his arm, but for a shorter time of the inter. He brings his arm and hand back to the neutral body position earlier than Mark Kirkby to prepare for the Bunyip grip.

This difference may have caught the attention of the judges. There is no indication that either Mark Kirkby or Andy Delk used an "assisting handhold" during the inter, no matter what they did with their arms and hands. However, the judges may have liked Mark Kirkby's way how to deal with the move better than Andy Delk's - whether the judges knew that it was a slot switcher for the rear piece or not.

Only the official scoresheet can tell where the infringement(s) was located. The Hayabusa Blog mentioned that it was the inter of Block 10, it did not say which of the four inters within working time were the busted ones. Mark Kirkby had the tail slot in the first and third one, Andy Delk in the second and fourth. The video also shows the fifth and sixth Block 10, one more for each tail outside of the working time.

The video of Round 5 shows the round that Airspeed did not like that much. The 4-way world champions considered themselves lucky that they did not lose much ground when they commented the round. Eventually, they even had the sole highscore for Round 5 and maintained the 20-point and up streak.

In the meantime, canopy pilot Thomas Hughes added mor cash to his purse in Dubai. The Accuracy event has also been completed, and he really managed to move up into the 3rd place money position after the last Accuracy round. This increases his purse from $3,000 to $5,000 after two events.

The good result in Round 3 of Accuracy swooping also increased his lead in the overall rankings. He has already been the leader of the Distance event since the first day of the competition. Two more rounds of Distance swooping are still to come, and possibly more dollars for Thomas Hughes, as well.

Dubai Championship
Who will win the 4-way Open Class?	Arizona Airspeed Hayabusa Defence
	Current Results