posted Mar 21st, 2006 - The first meet video of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2006 was posted yesterday and featured the unofficial world record jump of DeLand Fire in round four. The NSL News promised to follow up with the complete first round of the meet, and the jumps have been uploaded this morning. They can be viewed by clicking on the little icon next to the score.

The actual scoreboard does not show any deductions for infringements. However, each video file begins with the announcement of the featured team, including competition class, team name, round number and score. Any point deductions appear as a number in parenthesis behind the posted score.

This means that the home judging can begin right away. DeLand Fire obviously lost a point in round one. It will not be too difficult to find it. Block 18 (Zircon - Zircon) on the second page did not have a correct completion when one grip slipped after a short contact. Fire was still "in synch" and moved on, however, the judges did not agree with the completion.

The mediocre jump for DeLand Fire and the point deduction came along with a great meet opener of Sinapsi PD. The Italian team mentioned in an interview with the NSL News how important the good start was. The live interview in the NSL office two days after the event will be uploaded soon.

Sinapsi PD with a 19-pointer was already three points ahead of DeLand Fire, Fastrax and Norway Arcteryx after only one round. It was the first time that the Italian team took the lead in an international meet with a strong field after a good first round.

Round one was also the start of a 10-round marathon on Saturday for the Austrian team Monkey Circus. Thomas Haber (Inside Center, Christian Royer (Tail), Ewald Salcher (Outside Center), Horst Scheiber (Point) and Roland Habel (Video) had to fly back to Europe on Sunday and agreed to complete all ten rounds of the meet on Saturday.

Monkey Circus had only twenty minutes of preparation time between each competition jump. They also could not spend much time with their coach, DeLand Fire member Shannon Pilcher, who has been working with the Austrian team for a few years and competed with his own team.

However, Monkey Circus seemed to like the pressure and finished this year's Shamrock Showdown with the best meet average in team history. Monkey Circus had also attended the Shamrock Showdown 2005 and posted a 12.1 meet average after ten rounds last year. The 16.1 average last weekend was not only caused by a fast competition draw, it was also a totally different Austrian team that competed at the Shamrock Showdown 2006.

The situation in Austria this year is very similar to the 4-way competition in the small country last year. Three teams perform almost on exactly the same level and have a horse race for the medals every year: Team Fila, Monkey Circus and Matrix.

Team Fila is already qualified as the Austrian national 4-way team for the World Meet 2006 after winning the national championship in 2005. Matrix represented Austria at the World Meet in Croatia 2004 with a 13.4 average tied in 15th position. Team Fila competed at the Malevsky Cup 2005 and finished in 16th position with a 14.2 average.

The 16.1 average after ten rounds is a new benchmark for Austrian 4-way teams, as well as the 33-pointer in round four is a new inofficial Austrian record for a single round. The Monkey Circus performance will probably inspire the other Austrian top contenders to step up to the same new performance level.

Monkey Circus will still travel to the World Meet in the neighbouring Germany in August. Team Fila and Monkey Circus have already decided to join forces in 8-way and compete at the World Meet.