posted Jul 19th, 2011 - Yesterday's NSL News update from the CISM Championship in Brazil needed a correction. The teams in both 4-way events have actually 8-round meets, six qualification rounds, plus semifinals and finals. The Golden Knights are only the winner after the qualification rounds in the female category, and Fenix still has work to do in two more rounds to defend the bronze medal position.

In the meantime, this year's Dubai Championship has created some waves in the US 4-way community. The USPA Competition Committee decided at the July board meeting that Perris Fury and SDC Rhythm XP will be officially sanctioned to compete for the USA in Dubai in November/December this year.

The rules of the event allow each nation to send two teams to Dubai. Only one team is the official national team, which is eligible to win prize money. The winner in each of the two 4-way events (Open and Women) gets $20,000 and there are also cash prizes for the teams in 2nd and 3rd place ($15,000 - $10,000).

Perris Fury will be the official US national team according to the USPA decision. Fury placed 2nd at the USPA Nationals 2010 (25.5 - 24.1), 14 points behind the Arizona Airspeed 2010 lineup.

Both teams did not know that things would become complicated as of qualification rules when they regrouped at the end of the 2010 season. Fury member Josh Hall became a new Airspeed member, and only Mark Kirkby continued as a winning member of the 2010 lineup. He recruited three new Airspeed members, and Perris Fury replaced Josh Hall with Todd Hawkins.

Result was a very strong new Airspeed lineup, while Fury had a slow start into the 2011 season due to Uli Steuwe's shoulder surgery. In fact, Fury has attended only one meet this year, the Paraclete XP Indoor Skydiving Championships 2011, where John Hamilton flew the Tail slot for the missing Fury member.

January 8th, 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	Dubai Championship	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

The new Airspeed lineup has attended five meets this year, three indoor and two outdoor competitions. There is no doubt that the posted scores have made Airspeed clearly the strongest US team of the 2011 season. However, the new lineup is still not eligible to represent the USA at the Dubai Championship 2011, according to the recent USPA decision.

Reason for that is the fact that the USPA qualification rules require that a team has 50% of the members in the lineup for the FAI/IPC event that is coming up. Airspeed has only one team member of the 2010 lineup, Fury has three, and SDC Rhythm XP continues with the same lineup as in 2010. Golden Knights Gold and Paraclete XP4, 3rd and 4th last year, did not plan to compete in Dubai this year.

Unfortunately, USPA cannot use the results of this year's national championships as the qualifyer for Dubai 2011, which would have made it very easy to select the best US teams. The USPA rules also say that "the meet from which the results will be used to select the team must be held at least 60 days prior to the World Championships at which the team will compete." The 4-way event at the USPA Nationals 2011 will be completed on November 1st, and the Dubai Championship 2011 begins on November 29th.

First, the problem was not even there, as the USPA Nationals 2010 did not seem to be the qualifyer for Dubai 2011. The date of the Dubai Championships has been in January in the past years and was expected to be at that time once again in 2012. There would be plenty of time and more than 60 days between the USPA Nationals 2011 and the next Dubai Championship.

The Dubai date changed when FAI/IPC voted for the next World Championship of Formation Skydiving/Mondial 2012 in Dubai, scheduled for November/December 2012. The Dubai management decided to match the Mondial 2012 date and changed the event date of the next Dubai Championship from January 2012 to November/December 2011. Now Airspeed was in trouble with USPA's 60-day rule.

The USPA Competition Committee discussed the topic in length at the recent meeting and decided to apply the rules as they are. Perris Fury is the US national team for Dubai 2011, and SDC Rhythm XP is sanctioned as the second US team. Airspeed only has a chance to compete with the top contenders from France, Belgium and Russia for the 1st place and the $20,000 if one of the two teams decides not to compete in Dubai and if the other teams agrees to offer Airspeed the official status as the US national team.

3rd Dubai Cup
Who should represent the USA in Dubai this year?	Perris Fury SDC Rhythm XP Arizona Airspeed Others
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