posted Jun 14th, 2010 - Nothing changed at the Midway Meet in Ottawa, the five 4-way teams were done after five rounds. The weather did not cooperate well enough for a completion of all ten rounds. The scores from the United Kingdom were added to the overall leaderboard in the meantime and did not bring any AAA Class numbers.

UK's national 4-way team Satori was in a training camp in Spain. The NSL News will soon follow up with more Satori information and of the second meet of the United Kingdom Skydiving League.

The French national 4-way team, Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge, was actually the only 4-way team that completed ten rounds last weekend. All other French teams were done after eight rounds, and the UK teams had only six rounds on the meet agenda, which were all done on Saturday.

Jun12th, 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Total	Avg
Rank	AAAClass	B,9,21	J,P,E,10	G,M,7,L	4,Q,14	22,6,19	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge	28	31	35	22	20	136	27.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	29	28	33	23	19	132	26.4

The rankings on the leaderboard are still according to the meet averages. The NSL News now compared only the French scores and Arizona Airspeed, as last weekend's competition was the last time both teams would post any scores before traveling to Menzelinsk in Russia for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010.

Airspeed is officially still undefeated in outdoor competitions since the current lineup (Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard, Andy Delk, Mark Kirkby, Steve Nowak on camera) was formed in 2007. Airspeed and France did not compete at the same place and at the same time last weekend, and the meet environment and judging need to be the same to have a realistic comparison.

However, it seems as if the reigning world champions have lost the power position on the top where nobody would really question whether Airspeed would win the next meet or not. It was not even an Airspeed burden for a long time, as the pressure was automatically on the challenging teams.

The Road to Russia

This changed a little bit when Airspeed finished only in 5th place at the World Challenge 2010. Airspeed had never lost an indoor competition before, as well. Aerodyne Cypres Mabeuge won at Bodyflight Bedford, however, it was only a windtunnel competition.

Last weekend, both teams used the same competition draw while competing outdoors at two different locations. The cirumstances were as close as they can get to a real live competition, and France was four points ahead of Airspeed after five rounds.

The French scores of the second five rounds have been posted, and they are on the same performance level as they were in the first half of the meet. Airspeed would probably have to work hard to beat those numbers.

World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010
Who will win the 4-way Open Class competition?	USA France Belgium Italy Russia Canada
	Current Results

What does this all mean for the upcoming World Championship of Formation Skydiving? Airspeed's training efforts between the World Challenge 2010 and last weekend's competition have shown great results, as the Perris Fury and SDC Rhythm XP scores at least indicate.

Airspeed has added new distance to both US teams that competed in Ottawa, as well. The NSL News compared the latest Airspeed scores to Perris Fury and SDC Rhythm XP at the USPA Nationals 2009 and the World Challenge 2010, and the 4-way world champions have moved forward and further away.

This does obviously not count for the race with the French team. Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge has also improved the outdoor scoring level significantly and has not allowed Airspeed any gains, so far. It is a serious race. The NSL News will follow up with more insights of the Race to Russia.