posted Apr 9th, 2011 - Then it was time for the much anticipated Round 3 at the World Challenge 2011. The sequence of only random formations was not a surprise to the teams since host Paul Mayer has embedded the requirement of a sequence of random formations in his rules for the World Challenge. The only open questions were the letters of the randoms and which round it would be.

Last year's Airspeed "meltdown" was still in everybody's mind in Bedford this year, and the teams were on their toes as of the importance of this special round. A bad performance in Round 3 this time could be very costly.

It still happened again, and the French national team, Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge, with three reigning 4-way world champions, were the victims of the fastest sequence at the World Challenge 2011. Five teams scored higher, Maubeuge lost eight points to Arizona Airspeed and 13 points to NMP-PCH Hayabusa. The pursuit of the 1st place was over after Round 3 for last year's winner.

World Challenge 2011		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
R.	AAA Class	10,C,5	20,P,2	H,M,Q,K,A	L,J,16,12	E,7,15	O,11,22	14,B,17	6,13,9	4,3,21	1,G,8	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	27	25(-1)	65	29	33	23	28	28	22	25	305	30.5
2	Arizona Airspeed	26	24(-2)	60(-2)	27	34	24	27	28	23	25	298	29.8
3	Aerodyne Aerokart Maubeuge	26	25	52	27	31	25	29	27	24	24	290	29.0
4	XL	25	24	58	24	32	24	26	25	21	23	282	28.2
5	SDC Rhythm XP	22	23	56	23	27	20	24	21	19	22	257	25.7
6	SportsLotto	21(-2)	23(-1)	49(-3)	23	29	20	25	23	21	21	255	25.5
7	NPC Aerokart Maubeuge	24	20(-1)	41(-4)	22	26	21	26	22	21	20	243	24.3
8	Satori	19	19(-1)	57	21	25	19	24	21	17	20	242	24.2
9	Aerodyne DB Defenders	21(-1)	21	44(-1)	20	27	19	25	21	19	19	236	23.6
10	Thunder	13(-4)	20(-1)	41(-2)	23	27	20	23	21	19	17	224	22.4

Maubeuge was only two points down on Hayabusa for the total of the other nine rounds and tied with Airspeed disregarding the scores of Round 3. The sequence of only random formations was a killer for the French team this year.

The penalties for Round 3 have been added to the leaderboard, and they show that Maubeuge had no point deductions. The team just lost the flow and the synchronization of the sequence in the middle of the jump, and the judges resumed pushing the good buttons only when they saw that the team was back in synch.

Hayabusa posted the highscore of 65 points and won five points over Airspeed, which secured a solid lead of seven points. It is hard to imagine that Airspeed lost two points due to the video angle, as there was no videographer involved. Airspeed flew on a higher level and closer to the tunnel wall than usual, and the static camera did not capture the whole formation.

Hayabusa clearly won the fastest round of the meet and was still one point short of the highest score ever. This year's 65-pointer missed Perris Fury's 66-pointer at the World Challenge 2010 by inches. Record holder Chris Farina witnessed the challenge of his team's highscore, and the NSL News asked him how he felt when this was happening. It was exciting, even though he was only an observer, and he likes the idea of a fast sequence in the draw:

"I think it adds a lot of excitement to the meet. Plus they are so much fun to fly being able to just go fast. It was an interesting perspective to watch Round 3 and the entire meet this year not competing with Fury. It allowed me to relax a little and enjoy the show. I have to be honest, I'm always rooting to get to watch fast skydives but celebrated, even if only a small amount, when our record still stood at the end of the scoring."

He said that he was definitely a little worried when he saw the Belgian team starting out Round 3: "They hit the air flying fast and had a fantastic round. It's hard to downplay a score of 65!"

Chris Farina enjoyed watching Hayabusa during the meet: "They looked relaxed, having fun, and really tearing through the rounds. They have been working hard the last couple of years, and it is obviously paying off for them."

He was also happy with the Perris Jimani performance, which was based on his player coaching performance: "I was super proud of how Jimani flew and handled the meet. When Fury decided not to travel to the meet because of Uli's shoulder surgeries I sent out an email to see if anyone was interested in heading over for the meet and I received a good amount of interest. Andrea, Andre, and Jim were the first to commit. They are not really a team but came together nicely. We did one tunnel camp at Paraclete to prepare. We had a lot of fun, and they had a really good meet. This was their first international competition. I certainly had no idea where we would end up in the rankings, but it was nice to be skydiving well enough to be up in the mix. The team had a blast during the meet and enjoyed the trip and experience. They are already talking about heading back over next year."

Now he even plans to get together more teams and bring a Perris delegation over to Bedford next year, including Perris Blitz and some other local teams. Perris Fury and Perris Blitz will once again be running a tunnel camp next year the weekend before the competition, as Chris Farina thought about the World Challenge 2012: "The camp will be open to individuals and teams, and we'll be getting details out in the next few months." Paul Mayer tries to get the the magic number of 100 teams...