posted Jan 20th, 2011 - The NSL News added the score for SDC Rhythm XP's Round 8 to the manipulated leaderboard, which includes this week's ghost meet in Sebastian. The 22-pointer allowed Gradient Alpha to make up another point and catch Rhythm in the last round of the meet.

The manipulation of the Dubai Championship 2011 leaderboard went a step further, and it now also includes the scores of the two best teams in the 4-way Female Class.

It is not the first time that the NSL News has compared the scores of the Open Class and the Female Class directly with each other. It happened last time after the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 when the French national team in the female category, Aerokart Deep Blue, would have made it into the finals of the Open Class and finished tied in 6th place with Italy's national team in the Open Class, Sinapsi.

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	4,10,15	16,O,J,22	K,2,E,11	G,9,8	Total	Avg
1	Belgium NMP-PCH Hayabusa	24	34	30	23	19	22	24	28	204	25.5
2	France Aerodyne Aerokart	24	33	33	20	18	25	23	24	200	25.0
3	USA Arizona Airspeed	23	33	31	23	19	23	22	25	199	24.9
4	Russia Gradient Alpha	19	29	28	20	11	21	20	23	171	21.4
n/a	USA SDC Rhythm XP	19	29	28	20	16	19	18	22	171	21.4
n/a	France Aerodyne Cypres	20	26	28	20	15	19	20	21	169	21.1
5	Russia Black Cat	20	22	25	18	16	19	20	21	161	20.1
n/a	USA Alpha Armada	17	26	30	17	14	19	18	19	160	20.0

In Dubai, the same French lineup won again in the female category and would have finished in 5th place, two points behind Gradient Alpha. SDC Rhythm XP squeezed in the US team name right in front of Aerodyne Cypres, as well.

It was a good virtual race between those three teams using the same competition draw in three different ways. Only two points separated them. Alpha Armada, the US team in the female category, also ended up on the manipulated leaderboard after a good 1-point race with Black Cat from Russia.

By the way, the NSL News is not alone comparing the scores across the leaderboards. Teams do this on a regular basis by themselves, whether it is at the USPA Nationals between teams in the Open and Advanced Class or at IPC events between Open and Female Class.

The Aerodyne Cypres/Deep Blue members said in Menzelinsk that they were hardly looking at the leaderboard of their own category. They motivated themselves by checking out the scores and standings in the Open Class. Many teams also do the same when they follow the events on-line and then use the competition draw in training.

It was the last opportunity for the double pregnant French 7-way to challenge the Open Class teams indirectly in Dubai. Bérangère Duplouy and Françoise Simons-Hamouchi will take a break now and probably buy baby clothes with portions of the $20,000 prize money in Dubai. The new French lineup is getting ready to post the first outdoor scores at the Shamrock Showdown 2011.

The NSL News will now try to convince Paraclete XP4 today to copy the Dubai competition draw in training. John Eagle is back from his long trip and just recovered in time from a stomach illness that he caught in Dubai. XP4 has indoor and outdoor training on today's agenda, and the NSL News will begin reporting live from Raeford later today.