posted Aug 30th, 2011 - The next national championship is coming up, and it is an interesting one. The German teams compete for national honors in Kassel-Calden, and the competition begins tomorrow morning.

Each of the three German 4way teams that competed at the World Cup 2011 has signed up for the national championship, and two of them have realistic chances to end up in 1st place. How is it possible that the first German medalist in modern Formation Skydiving history, Paratec-Saar, could even be seriously challenged by any other team in Germany?

There is a very simple explanation. One of the team members will not be available this week, and Paratec-Saar has to compete with an alternate.

Paratec-Saar's Point Max Thiele updated the NSL News with the current situation. Dieter Schwarz, Center Outside, became sick after the World Cup in Saarlouis and has not been able to recover in time to jump this week. However, his team found an alternate who will compete for Paratec-Saar. ISB Air, the German 4way team in the female category, is still not ready for a comeback after Sarah Hajooze's injury, and the team members had no plans for the German Nationals 2011.

Max Thiele said that ISB Air's Point, Petra van Overveld, will compete in her original slot for Paratec-Saar. He will move to Center Outside and fly the new front piece together with the substitute Point. His team decided to show the German federation that they are not dodging the national championship under the new circumstances.

Paratec-Saar quickly booked a 30-minute tunnel session in Bottrop to get familiar with the new Point. He said that everything is new, of course. However, both teams have a similar style and similar coaching (Solly Williams, Gary Smith), and the tunnel session was promising.

The best German teams have all of a sudden moved much closer together before Round 1 has even started. It is not only Dynamite, Paratec-Saar's EADS 8way partners, who could get dangerously close now. There are actually three more teams who may suddenly be quite excited about an unexpected opportunity.

Final Four DeLand has trained a lot and moved up inch by inch closing the distance to the traditional top teams of the past years slowly and carefully. Then there are two new lineups, which are not really new as of the team members. Mixed Fource Remscheid could also be called X-Ray Remscheid, with two long-time members, Uli Sehrbrock and Steffen Schiedek, in the lineup.

The team decided to create a new team name, and the other half are ISB Air members, as well. Pia Weingart (Center Inside) and Anne Heinrich (Tail) are the complete ISB Air rear piece. The X-Ray guys are in their original front piece slots, which makes for a quite promising combination, even without much training.

World Cup 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Round 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open Class	C,22,19	E,M,1,2	12,9,16	O,8,10	Q,14,5	P,17,K,18	21,L,J,13	3,11,B	20,G,H,4	N,F,A,7	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	22	27	23 (-1)	22	26	25	25	24	24	37	255	25.5
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	22	27	23	21 (-1)	24	25	21	23	24	39	249	24.9
3	Paratec-Saar	16 (-2)	23	19	15 (-2)	19	18	16	19	20	31	196	19.6
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	18	21	19	16 (-2)	19 (-1)	16	15	19	19	33	195	19.5
5	Gradient Alpha	17	21	17 (-2)	13 (-2)	20	20	19	18	17	27	189	18.9
6	EX3MO4	15 (-1)	19	17	17	17	16	19	18	16	28	182	18.2
7	Bardagi	15	20	17	15	16 (-1)	14	19	15	17	29	177	17.7
8	Dynamite	14	18	16	16	17	17	17	17	17	-	149	16.6

Mixed Fource Remscheid still does not even complete the group of potential top contenders in Germany. The Usual Suspects make it a 5-team group. The relatively new team, winner of the AA Class competition at the World Challenge 2010, has not been on the very top level in Germany so far, despite a great progression throughout 2010 and 2011.

Reason for the positioning as an underdog for the top slots is the fact that the original lineup is not available this week. Uwe Soppa and Bernd Groß eventually also decided to look for alternates, and they found adequate ones. In fact, they hired player coaches for the meet. Kai Wolf, former German top competitor who has been living, training, competing and coaching in the USA for many years, is one of the ringers for the German Nationals.

The other substitute for the Usual Suspects is still a new name on the market. However, he has scored higher than anybody else ever in Germany, including Paratec-Saar. NMP-PCH Hayabusa Point Dennis Praet can easily go any pace that the other Usual Suspects may offer for him. He will still have enough time to relax and enjoy the competition.

Paratec-Saar, Dynamite, Final Four DeLand, Mixed Fource Remscheid, Usual Suspects - that's a mix of teams that guarantees a great competition and loads of excitement this week in Germany. Where to put the money on?

Max Thiele is aware of the new situation: "We look forward to an exciting battle, and we are ready to give it all. At least, we brought some additional excitement to this meet." The NSL News still expects Paratec-Saar on top of the leaderboard after the 10-round meet. ISB Air was not too far behind the Paratec-Saar pace before the break, and Petra van Overveld is well prepared to fill the slot. However, it will be a much closer race now.

The German federation already confirmed that the outcome of the German Nationals 2011 will not change the current status of Paratec-Saar as the national 4way team after the bronze medals at the World Cup. However, the 1st place would not cause any potential headaches for the German officials. The new NSL-TV video features Paratec-Saar and Dynamite with Round 5 at the World Cup, plus the other Top 8 teams.