posted Jul 28th, 2011 - Finland's Pro Team finished off the 2009 season at the World Cup in Prostejov, Czech Republic. Norway was the other nation with a team from Scandinavia in 2009.

This year's World Cup in Saarlouis, Germany, does not feature a Scandinavian race at all. Bardagi from Sweden is the only Scandinavian team in the 4-way Open Class, and Norway's team Polaris competes in the female 4-way category.

The NSL News recently reported that the Pro Team won Finland's national championship with a new lineup.

Finland's unofficial Scandinavian champion of 2010 did not have any plans beyond the July competition, neither for the World Cup 2011 nor for any other meets in the future, at least not yet. The World Cup next week in Germany will take place without a team from Finland.

However, more information came from Finland, including all meet videos of the Pro Team with new team member Tony Nyholm. The NSL News had briefly introduced the Pro Team's new Tail and mentioned that he is one of the most experienced current competitors in the country, maybe even the most successful of all times in Finland.

His competition experience goes even further back than mentioned in the previous article, all the way to Finland's biggest 4-way success in history.

Finland's national 4-way team of 1992 - 1994, Madway (Hannu "Hanski" Ryömä, Timo "Pönttö" Rantala, Kari Palola, Ari "Zero" Laukkanen, Pekka Palotie, Tony Nyholm), finished in 4th place at the World Meet 1993 in Eloy.

Pekka Palotie was on camera, Tony Nyholm was the alternate at that time. Later on, he won all national 4-way titles between 1999 and 2003 with FC Moukku.

Tarzanelli member Jorma “Jore” Löfgren was also an original Madway member of 1992 and finished 2nd with his team at the Finnish Nationals 2011.

Event Judge Jukka Olkkonen, who has been archiving the country's skydiving history, said that Madway's 4th place in 1993 was the best placing for a Finnish 4-way team ever and confirmed Tony Nyholm's accomplishments: "Although nobody has really counted, it is a general belief that Tony has more RW/FS medals from national championships than anyone else, in different colors but many of them golden."

Jukka Olkkonen also reported a great event this year: "Jämi is really a great place with superb facilities, so I believe that helped to keep up the good mood even though we had bad weather and a lot of stand-by. And of course, once again, a small club wanted to show the competitors their best, so the friendly atmosphere did not hurt either..."

He added that the host, Tampereen Laskuvarjokerho (Parachuting Club of Tampere), was also happy with the somewhat unexpected outcome in the A Class competition. The hosting club had two new teams at their first competition ever, Hovinarrit and Umppa Lumpat, who started with 4-way competition last winter. Jukka Olkkonen said that they were asking the most basic questions, such as “What do you mean, random formation - block? What's that...?” It was a start from scratch, and now after only a few months of training Hovinarrit ended up in 3rd place, and Umppa Lumpat was not far behind. Both teams said that their competition jumps went much better than what they expected after training.

The A Class winner, Silver Knights, was out of reach for all other teams in Finland. The team's progress between 2010 and 2011 is more than impressive.

Silver Knights won the A Class competition last year with a 5.9 average. Pro Team members Kimmo Pohjola and Juho Mikkola then worked with the Silver Knights, and the A Class team won with a 14.5 average this year.

The Silver Knights is actually a military lineup. Finland's military discontinued the support of skydiving activities in 2004.

Last year, the young and eager Silver Knights members started jumping together just for fun. They represent Finland's military and get support with equipment.

However, they still train on their own time and expenses. Kimmo Pohjola will probably continue working with the Silver Knighs and their 4-way project in the AAA Class competition next year. The Pro Team may prepare their own future challenger.