posted Feb 24th, 2010 - The last update of the field of teams at the World Challenge 2010 added several new names on the list.

Two more teams will follow the same spring tour that several top teams have been traveling in the past years. SDC Rhtythm XP will first compete at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010 and then make the team's first trip to Bedford at the beginning of April. Rhythm will travel to the United Kingdom together with Paraclete XP4, the team with Rhythm coach Kirk Verner that they share most of the indoor and outdoor training time with.

Both meets will bring Rhythm into the real mix with the international top contenders for the first time, while the XP4 members are already very familiar with international top competition. The Spring Tour 2010 will provide experiences for Rhythm that will help the new full time team on the pursuit of the ambitious goals.

XP4 has an even busier agenda, as the expected top contender in 4-way also competes in 8-way at the Shamrock Showdown. The NSL News reported already earlier that the Paraclete XP 8-way lineup will challenge the Golden Knights at the invitational 8-way competition in DeLand.

The XP4 members will complete ten rounds in 4-way and in 8-way at the Shamrock Showdown and then follow up with ten more indoor rounds at the World Challenge two weeks later. Rhythm is only doing 4-way at the Shamrock.

The Chicago/Sebastian team is very well tunnel trained and familiar enough with indoor competition. However, Bodyflight Bedford is not the team's home tunnel, and a different flying chamber and meet environment is like competing at a new dropzone.

Bodyflight Bedford is not new for three of the XP4 members. Kirk Verner, Andy Honigbaum and John D'Annunzio already competed in Bedford at the World Challenge 2008. Tim D'Annunzio was still an active member of the Paraclete XP 4-way and 8-way lineup by then and competed at the indoor meet. His team finished in 9th place with a 22.7 average.

Kirk Verner and Andy Honigbaum came back next year and competed with Golden Knights Brian "BK" Krause and Matt Davidson at the World Challenge 2009. GKXP finished in 6th place with a 24.7 average.

This year, John D'Annunzio is back in the Point slot, and John Eagle has joined XP4 in the Tail position. The Paraclete team is not only attending the Shamrock Showdown 2010 and the World Challenge 2010. XP4 has serious plans for the 2010 season.

The competition videos of the Shamrock Showdown and the World Challenge will show the new and complete XP4 lineup in action for the first time. Of course, XP4 has already completed many hours of wind tunnel training time.

In fact, the team is usually training every day in the morning and will probably be prepared as no other team for the indoor competition in Bedford. However, the NSL News has not seen any of the tunnel videos with the original lineup yet.

There is a video of three XP4 members flying with the NSL News reporter during the SDC Rhythm XP tryout weekend where John D'Annunzio is flying in the Tail slot and Kirk Verner and Andy Honigbaum in their original team slots. However, the original XP4 lineup of 2010 will look very different when they will enter the flying chamber in Bedford. It would be no surprise to see the team in contention with the best teams in the world in April. But first the Shamrock.