posted Oct 4th, 2011 - The NSL News has covered the competition for the unofficial annual Scandinavian championship quite a few times in the past. The Open Class teams from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and sometimes Iceland have been battling for the Scandinavian top spot in 4way year by year, and the NSL News has been keeping track of it since 1985 when the "modern age" of Formation Skydiving competition began.

Denmark dominated this internal competition for the first decade, interrupted only by Finland in 1987, followed by Norway between 1997 and 2008, until Finland's Pro Team took back the special honor at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010.

Sweden had only two second places in 1997 and 2003 so far and never the top spot in Scandinavia. This may change at next year's World Championship of Formation Skydiving competition since Bardagi did very well at the World Cup 2011 and may have caught up with Denmark (Bodyflight Voluntas) and Finland who were both absent in Germany this year.

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Sweden and Norway also had teams in the female 4way category in Menzelinsk last year and have been players in this category ever since it was introduced in 1999. Norway's team Polaris won the bronze medals this year and has plans until the World Meet 2012 in Dubai. Finland, Denmark and Iceland have never had a team in the female 4way category.

Finland's Pro Team was almost an all-female lineup, with three female team members (Laura Miettinen, Outi Pohjola and Eija Suvala), plus Center Outside Kimmo Pohjola. Denmark has had several female 4way competitors in the national B- and C-Teams in the past years. However, the DaneZ and Bodyflight Voluntas, Denmark's national teams in the Open Class in the past years, have not had any female members.

Things will now change in Denmark, as the federeation has decided to sanction a national team in the female 4way category.

The lineup has already been put together, and it consists of Kathrine Pontoppidan, Vibeke Birk, Birgitte Fischer Sode and Kate Cooper-Jensen, with Kim Jensen on camera. The new Danish national team has not trained yet but will post the first scores at Denmark's national indoor championships this weekend at Bodyflight Bedford.

Kathrine Pontoppidan was the Point for B-Team Altius in 2010 and Bodyflight Atlas in 2011. She battled hard with her new team mate Birgitte Fischer Sode, who was in the C-Team lineup of Bodyflight Factum, at this year's national championships. Atlas won by one point in a jump-off round.

Vibeke Birk was a member of the former B-Team Sequence for a few years but did not join any of this year's national lineups in Denmark. In fact, she took a complete year off from 4way competition in 2011.

Dubai January 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	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	France Aerodyne Deep Blue	20	26	28	20	15	19	20	21	169	21.1
2	USA Alpha Armada	17	26	30	17	14	19	18	19	160	20.0
3	Russia Illusions	16	21	22	15	9	17	17	17	134	16.8
4	Spain Empuria Gatas	11	14	13	10	10	12	11	10	91	11.4
5	Denmark Lady Vikings	8	13	12	11	9	11	10	11	85	10.6
6	Canada	4	9	8	0	2	7	6	6	42	5.3

Kate Cooper-Jensen is a big-way expert who used to be a World Team and Kaleidoscope Dives captain and is now co-organizer of the Dubai 500 world record project. She has also attended a few 4way competitions in Denmark and Perris here and there.

Three members of Denmark's new national lineup in the female 4way category have behind them their first team experiences together. Birgitte Fischer Sode, Kathrine Pontoppidan and Kate Cooper-Jensen competed at the Dubai Championship 2011, together with Anne Mine Møller Petersen and Bjarke Gjødesen on camera. The Lady Vikings finished with a 10.6 average in 5th place.

The new team has plans for several outdoor training camps in the USA and extensive additional windtunnel training. Goal is a Top 5 finish at next year's World Meet in Dubai, which depends on the competition, as Kathrine Pontoppidan mentioned: "Of course this is difficult to say without knowing what kind of competition the world meet will bring." She added that the new team gets support from Bev Suits, L&B, Square1, PhantomX and other out-of-the-sport sponsors.