posted Aug 23rd, 2010 - The NSL News mentioned earlier that the 2010 competition season is not over yet for several teams that competed at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia.

The UK Nationals 2010 was one of the national championship events that followed the World Meet in Russia. The NSL News is now trying to catch up with other national championships that were also recently completed.

Some of those events still serve as qualifiers for the next year. The winning teams become the national teams for the 2011 season, as it was the case in Sweden. In addition to the status as the national team for the World Cup 2011 in Germany, two Swedish teams also had an open account that needed to be settled. The Swedish Nationals 2010 were completed last week in Gryttjom, home of the Stockholm Skydiving Club.

Swedish Nationals 2010		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	L,A,21,B	9,13,7	16,15,1	F,14,19	J,C,12,N	O,4,Q,P	G,6,2	K,18,5	E,M,D,10	3,22,11	Total	Avg
1	Bardagi	19	17	12	15	16	21	14	11	16	9	150	15.0
2	Blue Spirits	18	14	13	14	14	17	15	14	16	11	146	14.6
3	TCP-G	15	13	11	12	9	17	12	12	15	11	127	12.7
4	Aquila	12	9	9	8	8	11	10	7	13	4	91	9.1
Rank	AClass	A,P,G	K,6	E,9	2,19	4,H	8,D	B,M,O	J,L,Q	C,F,7	21,N	Total	Avg
1	CADO	11	6	11	0	5	5	13	9	8	-	68	7.6

The two teams with the open account were Bardagi and Blue Spirits. The competition between those two teams goes back to the first meet in June, which was the qualification event for the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk. The NSL News posted a preview of this competition on 5 May 2010 and followed up with scores and meet story on 7 June 2010.

It was a very exciting battle for the trip to Russia, and Bardagi came out of it as the Swdish national 4-way team in the Open Class. Blue Spirits player coach Joey Jones could not compete in Menzelinsk, however, he made the trip anyway to guide the Swedish national team in the female 4-way category through the meet, support NMP-PCH Hayabusa as much as possible and anchor the NSL Talk shows whenever he was available.

Bardagi competed for Sweden in the Open Class at the same time and finished in 13th place with a 16.0 average. The Swedish team was officially done after eight rounds but continued unofficially and completed rounds nine and ten as well, as the NSL-TV videos shows.

World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk: Sweden's national team Bardagi

The competition at the World Meet 2010 was exciting enough for Bardagi, as the Swedish national team had to work hard fending off the Scandinavian rivals from Norway, X3M4S Elements, who ended up just two points behind in 14th place.

However, the NSL News update from Sweden on 1 July 2010 explained that Bardagi did not only think of the World Meet during the preparations for the trip to Russia.

Team member Mikael Kaulanen made it clear that the main team goal for this season was still the Swedish Nationals 2010 where Bardagi wanted to peak. The national championship was scheduled one week after the world meet.

June 5th, 2010 Round1 Round2 Round3 Round4 Round5 Round6 Round7 Round8 Round9 Round10 Total Avg Rank AAAClass 9,10,G 16,5,D 13,6,21 N,L,A,19 E,K,P,3 18,15,14 22,8,17 2,7,M O,Q,11,20 B,F,J,H,12 Total Avg 1 Bardagi 15  16  15  18  15  11  12  16  15  22  155 15.5 2 BlueSpirits 13  15  14  16  17  11  12  16  17  18  149 14.9

August 20th, 2010 Round1 Round2 Round3 Round4 Round5 Round6 Round7 Round8 Round9 Round10 Total Avg Rank AAAClass L,A,21,B 9,13,7 16,15,1 F,14,19 J,C,12,N O,4,Q,P G,6,2 K,18,5 E,M,D,10 3,22,11 Total Avg 1 Bardagi 19  17  12  15  16  21  14  11  16  9  150 15.0 2 BlueSpirits 18  14  13  14  14  17  15  14  16  11  146 14.6

The battle with Norway in Menzelinsk was obviously another great pressure experience for Bardagi, and it came at a great time since Blue Spirits was eventually charging once again.

However, the Swedish national team used the momentum from Russia and dominated throughout the first six rounds of the national championships.

Blue Spirits came back round by round beginning in Round 7 and won three of the last four rounds. In fact, Blue Spirits won the last four rounds by a total of six points. It was still not enough to make up for the slow start.

Bardagi had worked out a very safe cushion of ten points and benefitted the most from Blue Spirits' weak Round 6 where the 6-point lead went up to a 10-point advantage. That was too much, even though Blue Spirits won the remaining four rounds by six points. Bardagi won by four points after ten rounds and defended the top position in Sweden successfully.