posted Jul 8th, 2011 - The new meet weekend is coming up, and the Midwest Skydiving League has scheduled the only competition at the beginning of the month of July. The MWSL teams visit the new home of Chicagoland Skydiving, one of the two skydiving centers that have consistently been hosting MWSL meets ever since the league was launched.

Last weekend's events took place in Finland and Brazil, and the NSL News has covered both events with information provided by CTR Optimum member André Ferraz from Brazil and Jukka Olkkonen from Finland. Once again it is difficult to credit any of the seven teams with the unofficial title of the TEAM OF THE WEEKEND.

The NSL News mentioned that Brazil's all-female team Fenix posted a new team record for a single round with the 13-pointer in Round 1. This is a great achievement since it was a 2-block sequence (9,7) even though an easy one. Fenix has completed 21 competition rounds this year and saw only one sequence with only random formations (G,F,M,K) in Round 6 of the Valentine's Meet 2011. The score in Eloy was a 9-pointer.

July 2nd, 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class	9,7	11,L,2	13,20	K,F,J,19	18,E,15	G,21,14	Total	Avg
1	Brazil Fenix	13	8	3	9	8	8	49	8.2
2	Brazil Pe de Pano	11	7	4	12	7	6	47	7.8
3	Brazil Anima	10	8	7	9	8	2	44	7.3
4	Brazil 4 Master	1	3	2	5	1	4	16	2.7
Rank	A Class	9,7	L,2	19,D	K,F,J	E,N,8	G,21	Total	Avg
1	Finland Creme Brule	8	2	3	6	7	5	31	5.2
2	Finland Hanna Ja Lapset	6	5	4	8	7	-	30	6.0
3	Finland Pokassa Hyppäävät	4	3	2	-	-	-	9	3.0

Brazil's team Anima deserves credit, as well. The 2011 season is the third year for the AA Class team. Anima ended up in 3rd place last weekend. However, the Brazilian team was actually very much in contention for the 1st place, together with Fenix and Pe de Pano. In fact, Anima was one point ahead of the two other teams going into the last round of the meet. The 2-pointer in Round 6 was the reason for the 3rd place finish. Anima has a 16-pointer in the books as the team's highscore, posted last year.

Then there is Creme Brule from Finland where Pasi Takala, Herkko Virolainen, Malla Mäkelä, Eila Pohjola and Risto Johansson (camera) are in the second year of the team in the A Class. Creme Brule has a famous team member. Eila Pohjola was recently elected as the president of the Helsinki Parachute Club, the biggest club in Finland.

She has been skydiving only for one year and is at the very beginning of her skydiving career. She became a Creme Brule member this year, and the team is now at last year's highest scoring level after the second meet in Finland last weekend. Creme Brule had a perfect 2010 season with progression at each of the four meets (1.8 - 3.3 - 4.1 - 5.2) that the team attended.

The 7-pointer for a sequence of only random formations in Round 6 (O,M,D) of the July meet last year was the highest score for a single round last year, even though Creme Brule tied it two times (M,7 and J,D,21) at the national championships in August.

The three 7-pointers of 2010 are history now. The new lineup with club president Eila Pohjola posted an 8-pointer last weekend in the same Round 1 (9,7) where Felix scored a new team record. Creme Brule had the opportunity to score even higher in Round 4 (K,F,J) and did not use it this time. Maybe at the upcoming national championships...

By the way: Eila Pohjola's last name is identical with the one of a Pro Team member, the best 4-way team that Finland has produced in a long time. Kimmo Pohjola was the Center Outside for the Pro Team and impressed the 4-way world with a 20.4 average at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010, the highest result that a team from Finland has ever posted. The NSL News is not aware of any family relationship between Eila and Kimmo Pohjola. However, Creme Brule is the TEAM OF THE WEEKEND.