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The award ceremony for 4-way took place Wednesday night. USPA President Glenn Bangs was on the microphone and introduced the teams and officials. He opened the ceremony with the presentation of one of the highest USPA awards for special achievements. Freefall photographer Mike McGowan was honored and touched when he accepted the "Meritorious Achievement Medal" from Chris Needels and Glenn Bangs.
The judges had a lot of work at the USPA Nationals 2005 since 80 4-way teams was a new record participation in US Formation Skydiving history. The days were very long for the three 5-judges panels, and the teams and competitors showed their appreciation for the hard work in the judging rooms.
Judge veterans Judy Celaya and Rina Gallo were still in good spirits at the end of the third working day as the picture shows.
SSL Director Pamela Stevens proudly announced the winners of this year's SSL Grand Prize, which is the SSL sponsorship of the SSL winners to the NSL Championship at SkyQuest 2005.
Perris Storm in the AAA Class and Arizona Divewerkz in the AA Class have the opportunity to accept the SSL Grand Prize and travel to Florida in November.
The award ceremony included the medal presentation for the three USPA competition classes (Open, Advanced, Intermediate) and also the presentation of the team that will represent the USA at IPC's Women's Class competition at the world meet next year, Perris Synchronicity. The NSL News had met with two team members earlier on Wednesday for an interview. Kim Brandt and Becky Broccato explained the team's difficulties prior to the competition in Perris when hurricane Katrina wiped out Becky Broccato's home town New Orleans. This interview will follow later today.
Scenes of the award ceremony can be viewed by clicking here.
Both are on the very top of the swooping rankings, and Ian Bobo recently won the World Cup in Austria. The combination of 4-way and Swwooping seems to work very well for the Fire members. The NSL News captured Ian Bobo's first round at the swooping pond in Perris for NSL-TV, and Ian Bobo also took a few minutes for an interview right after the jump.
Round eight of the 8-way competition is almost complete, and Airspeed added another point to the lead. The 6-point difference to the Golden Knights after eight rounds should be enough to carry the lead easily through the two remaining rounds. Stay tuned.