posted Jan 7th, 2011 - The first competition day is over at the Dubai Championship 2011. Unfortunately, the NSL News is not live on competition site, and the information trickles in very slowly from the place far away.

CYPRES representative Rob Kendall is doing his best to get scores, photos and information, but at least for the official scores the whole audience on and off site depends on announcements and publications by the host. However, the scores of the first two rounds are now posted, and the competition in the Open Class is just as exciting as expected.

Video clips and stories have not been overwhelming so far. The host in Dubai and the sanctioning organization, the International Parachuting Commission (IPC), both have their own official media outlets and don't communicate directly with the NSL News. Airspeed has uploaded their videos of the first two rounds, which adds some great visuals to the coverage.

4-way Open Class

NMP-PCH Hayabusa has not been the top favorite in the polls so far. However, Roy Janssen, David and Andy Grauwels have brought young Dennis Praet up to full Hayabusa speed in time, and Danny Jacobs is filming his team from the very beginning. Result is the 1st place after two rounds. The polls are still open for adjustments...

France Aerodyne Aerokart with new member Emmanuel "Manu" Sarrazin and three reigning 4-way world champions has been expected in 1st place so far. The new French lineup is also up to top speed and trails by one point after one medium and one fast round. Arizona Airspeed, with John Eagle in the Tail slot for Mark Kirkby, is happy with the performance so far: "We had a great jump. I guess we are starting to feel a little trained, 3 jumps with this lineup! Craig said the jump was awesome.".

Dubai Championship 2011		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	P,17,18	M,N,F,3	H,A,6,B	Q,1,C,14	4,10,16	16,O,J,22	K,2,E,11	G,9,8	Total	Avg
1	Belgium NMP-PCH Hayabusa	24	34	-	-	-	-	-	-	58	29.0
2	France Aerodyne Aerokart	24	33	-	-	-	-	-	-	57	28.5
3	USA Arizona Airspeed	23	33	-	-	-	-	-	-	56	28.0

4-way Female Class

The current results in the poll for the female 4-way competition match the scores after Round 2 quite well. The French world champions are in 1st place at their last meet together, but they are far from being safe, and the situation doesn't compare to the walk in the park in January 2010.

The high-profile US lineup, with Perris Fury's Christy Frikken in her Center Outside slot, started slowly in Round 1 and has now begun to challenge the French team. The NSL News mentioned earlier that Aerodyne Cypres/Deep Blue may have to work much harder for the money ($20,000) this time.

Russian teams are next in the current rankings in both events, and the NSL News will introduce the lineups later today.

Dubai Championship 2011		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Female	P,17,18	M,N,F,3	H,A,6,B	Q,1,C,14	4,10,16	16,O,J,22	K,2,E,11	G,9,8	Total	Avg
1	France Aerodyne Cypres	20	26	-	-	-	-	-	-	46	23.0
2	USA Alpha Armada	17	26	-	-	-	-	-	-	43	21.5
3	Russia Women	16	21	-	-	-	-	-	-	37	18.5