posted Jul 26th, 2010 - Arizona Airspeed has arrived at Menzelinsk in Russia, and NMP-PCH Hayabusa made the transition from the CISM Championships in Switzerland to the event site of the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 successfully, as well.

The NSL News has another video of the Belgian 4-time military world champions from the recent competition. This time, the video features Round 1 where Hayabusa scored 36 points, the second highest score of the competition.

Hayabusa had planned to improve the team's 8-round record average of 33.0 and score higher than 30 points in each round. The Belgians actually did so until Round 6, and only the weather came in the way of the goal for eight rounds. Hayabusa now works on the transition back to the left-hand door and completed eight training jumps in Menzelinsk on Monday.

The Road to Russia

The NSL News now takes a closer look at the next part of the 2008 leaderboard, the teams that did not make it to the final round, plus the next group of four teams that were finished after Round 6 in Maubeuge.

This group includes the teams that are involved in the race for the unofficial title of the best "amateur team" in the world. Italy (Spin Team), Netherlands (Dynamic Fource), Switzerland (VIVA) and Germany (FSC Eisenach/Paratec-Saar) competed for this honor in 2008, and it surely was a great race.

It is, of course, impossible to define exactly which teams can be a part of this unofficial race and which are not. In fact, there is no definition for this category. It is up to the audience to decide which teams are "eligible". The NSL News only tries to provide as much information as possible and direct attention to several other very committed and hard working teams in the field.

World Meet 2008			Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAAClass		B,17,7	H,N,13,A	10,J,C,6	18,12,2	E,3,9	19,O,4	D,M,5,16	14,20,21	Total	Avg
7	Italy Spin Team	News	23	21	16	13	21	16	21	-	131	18.7
8	Netherlands Dynamic Fource	News	22	20	16	12	21	16	22	-	129	18.4
9	Switzerland VIVA	News	19	23	17	13	21	15	18	-	126	18.0
10	Germany FSC Eisenach	News	21	17	14	13	21	15	21	-	122	17.4
11	Australia Airtite	News	15	21	16	11	19	16	-	-	98	16.3
12	Lithuania Magic 4	News	19	19	13	13	16	15	-	-	95	15.8
12	DK Danish Blaze	News	18	20	14	11	16	16	-	-	95	15.8
14	South Africa Springboks	News	17	18	15	11	19	14	-	-	94	15.7

The same four teams that competed unofficially for the amateur title in 2008 were also the ones that made it into the semifinals, Round 7, in Maubeuge. It was a close 3-point call though between Australia and Germany for the last slot in the semifinals.

Australia's national champion of 2009 and 2010, Rotor Out, will not compete in Russia. Germany (Paratec-Saar, formerly known as FSC Eisenach) is back with the same lineup of the past eight years and better prepared than in 2008. Germany will be one of the top contenders for the unofficial amateur title.

The Spin Team won the amateur title for Italy in 2008 with an 18.7 average after seven rounds. Sinapsi then won the national championship in 2009 and became Italy's 4-way team for 2010. The Sinapsi potential brings Italy back to the top level in the Open Class. Three of the Sinapsi members won bronze medals at the World Meet 2006 in Germany.

Dynamic Fource from the Netherlands is expected to be the top contender for this year's amateur title after missing it by three points in 2008 with exactly the same lineup. There will be strong competition though, as Germany (Paratec-Saar), Finland (Pro Team) and Denmark (Bodyflight Voluntas) are all aiming at the 20-point average mark, which will probably be the benchmark to win the amateur title this year.

Switzerland was in this pack in 2008 with VIVA and does not have a team in Menzelinsk.

The World Meet 2008 will be the first one for the Danish Voluntas lineup, which was put together at the end of the 2008 season. Brian Gregersen and Kasper Brandt-Svanekier competed for Denmark in 2008, Flemming Borop Andersen and Kenneth Gajda attend their first world meet.

Lithuania's 4-way team Magic 4 has become a solid part of the international 4-way community by now. The team competed in 2006 in Germany (10.2) and came back two years later on a significantly increased scoring level (15.8) that brought Magic 4 close to the teams that competed for the slots in the semifinals.

The Magic 4 lineup of 2008 competed at the World Challenge 2010 and will probably come back to Russia with the same lineup, as well. A slot in the semifinals could be the goal for Magic 4 this year.

South Africa was only one single point behind Lithuania in 2008 with the Springboks. The NSL News had no information which lineup will represent South Africa in Menzelinsk.