posted Sep 29th, 2005 - The NSL News has covered the 4-way project in Denmark on a regular basis in the past years. The NSL News introduced Denmark's plans for the pursuit of medals at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 with a story on January 24, 2004, for the first time (check NSL Archives 2004).

Former Sportschef Flemming Nøddegaard and "Team Danmark", which is supported by the Danish government, had created a comprehensive 4-way project to enhance competition skydiving in Denmark. The NSL News posted updates a several times ever since the launch of the project.

The latest update was posted with a story on May 9 this year. It has been quiet around the Danish project ever since, and the NSL asked the current national team, DaneZ, for an update. Team member Mikael Toft provided the answers to the NSL News questions.

NSL News: The DaneZ did not compete at any of the winter meets in Florida this year. Illness was the obstacle at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2005. What happened after the Shamrock Showdown?

Mikael Toft: The DaneZ missed the Shamrock but planned to be back in DeLand for a 2-week camp in April/May. This camp had to be canceled for the same reason, Jess was still sick. The doctors recommended not to jump before June 1st. However, we just completed a 12-day camp at DeLand in June. The weather was not working with us too well, but we managed to make approx. 70 jumps. It was good to get back in the air after a 6-month break.

NSL News: It was quiet around the Danez later this year, as well.

Mikael Toft: We did not go to the Malevsky Cup 2005 since one team member had a baby the same week. We also did not have enough training by then.

NSL News: What is the current situation of the Team Denmark project?

Mikael Toft: Team Denmark has discontinued the support for our Danish Parachuting Association, and also for 15 other small sports associations, such as rugby, volleyball, etc.) It was a political decision made this year. We still continue the projekt with a reduced budget, and we hope to find funding again in the future. Then our association can start a new serious 4-way projekt.

NSL News: What happened to Flemming and his position?

Mikael Toft: Flemming stepped back from his position because there was no money to pay for him, but he is still behind our team and helps us whenever he can find the time.

NSL News: What are the DaneZ' plans for this year?

Mikael Toft: We trained with Solly Williams in June, and will do it again in October before we will compete at the World Cup 2005 in Eloy. We will be back in DeLand for a 2-week camp on October 10.

NSL News: What are the plans until 2006?

Mikael Toft: The project will continue with three teams, and DeLand will still be the home base. We plan to do approx. 450 jumps before the world meet in 2006. Our training and competition schedule in 2006 includes the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2006 with two weeks of training before, two more training weeks in May/June and then the Malevsky Cup 2006. The world meet in Germany is the final goal in 2006. We have to accept that we will probably not be in medal contention. However, we will train hard and become as good as possible. Maybe we can be a surprise. Vitesse has scheduled 15 days of training in February and 16 days in April, the Elements have a 25-day camp in April, this all in DeLand.

Mikael Toft also commented the situation of the team's former coach, Pete Allum, who is now a member of the Italian 4-way team Sinapsi PD and currently awaits the result of Italy's appeal to the FAI eligibility ruling. The hearing of the appeal is scheduled for October 10, 2005.

"We stopped to work with Pete Allum as a coach after November 2004, and we spoke with Pete about his current situation at the June camp in DeLand. We give our full support to Pete and Sinapsi PD in their hard and difficult work to form a new world class team."

Mikael Toft also provided an update of the Danish National Championship 2005, which was held in July this year. The teams could complete only two rounds due to very bad weather. The DaneZ won with a 2-round total 33 points, followed by Vitesse with 26 points and the Elements with 26 points, as well. These three teams were the sponsored teams of the Danish 4-way project.

The competition draw offered sequences of an average pace. Mikael Toft commented hat the DaneZ were suffering from missing training after completing only a total of 85 jumps this year until July. Vitesse scored according to the team's performance level, and the Elements did extremely well. The DaneZ member remained hopeful and finished with an optimistic outlook:

"We are carefully optimistic that the Danish projekt will get back on track within a year or two, so we can have a Danish team back in the race for the world's medals, maybe already in 2008."