posted Jun 2nd, 2004 - The first day of the IPC Anton Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004 is not very far away. June has already come, and the teams will begin traveling to Russia very soon. The event begins officially on June 29, the NSL News will arrive in Stupino on June 27. June 1 was the deadline for registration. The field of teams has become even stronger, and the NSL News now continues with the introduction of the contenders for the "amateur title", which is identical with the race for the fourth place and the price money for the next rankings ($5,000 - $4,000 - $3,000).The three female teams were already the topic of the last Malevsky Cup update. Italy's Kewara and UK's V-Max are expected to be a part of the competition for the positions directly behind the medals. Unfortunately, one of last year's top teams had to withdraw and will not be a part of this race. The Swiss national team of 2003, Endeavour, was planning to compete in Russia this year. Endeavour had actually discontinued after their great performance at the Mondial 2003 in Gap, where the Swiss team finished in 6th position with an 18.7 meet average after nine rounds. However, Endeavour decided to get the team back together only for the Malevsky Cup 2004, similar to V-Max.It turned out that one of the original 2003 team members would not be available for the Malevsky Cup 2004. Endeavour made great efforts to find a replacement. Yet it did not work out the way the team was hoping for, and finally they withdrew from the Malevsky field. This withdrawal leaves V-Max, Kewara, Arcteryx (Norway), EADS (Germany) and the Danez (Denmark) in the race for the remaining $12,000 in Russia. Of course, there will also be very good Russian teams competing in Stupino. The NSL News will also introduce the participating home teams with more updates to come.

Arcteryx, EADS and the Danez are all the national teams of their countries and already qualified to represent Norway, Germany and Denmark at this year's World Championship of Formation Skydiving in Croatia in September. Each of these teams has a very special situation. EADS has exactly the same line-up that competed at the World Meets in 2001 and 2003, with Thomas Spielvogel (Point), Jens Goennemann (Center Outside), Olaf Biedermann (Center Inside) and Göran Meyer (Tail). The team obviously brings in a lot of experience. In fact, Spielvogel is one of the most experienced 4-way competitors in history and has not missed a World Meet since 1989.

EADS placed 7th at this team's first appearance at a World Meet with a 14.7 meet average after nine rounds in Spain 2001. EADS then competed at the World Cup in Spain 2002 and finished in 11th place with a 17.1 average after eight rounds. It was once again the 7th place in the national teams' ranking. This result was also the highest score of a German team at an international 4-way event ever. Next and latest step for EADS was the Mondial 2003 where the same team finished in 8th position with a 17.2 average after nine rounds.

EADS is financially supported by one of the largest German corporations, the "European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company" that proudly presents the team on the corporate website. However, the team members are still weekend jumpers with "normal" jobs and lives. Team EADS has visited Skydive Deland in Florida several times in the past to work with coach Gary Smith, two times in the spring of 2004. The team will also train for a week in Russia. One of the strongest EADS components for success is the consistency and reliability. It is almost impossible for a viewer to detect any flaws when the team is shown on meet videos. Next step is the 18.0 average hurdle. This might already happen at the Malevsky Cup 2004.

The NSL News already introduced the national team from Denmark, the Danez, earlier this year. The current line-up with Jess Romer (inside center), Jesper Rasmussen (outside center), Rene Andreasen (tail), Mikael Toft (point) and Bjarke Gjodesen (video) is the A-Team of the Danish 4-way project, which was launched last year.Three of the team members competed with the Danish national team at the Mondial 2003 and finished in 12th place with a 15.0 average after eight rounds. The 2004 line-up competed for the first time at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2004 and finished with a 15.4 average after ten rounds.Former XL member Pete Allum has been the head coach of the Danish project ever since it was launched and has already worked a lot with the A-Team this year. The Danez have been ahead of the projected progression from the very beginning and will be ready to improve the scoring level significantly at the Malevsky Cup 2004. The only question is how much higher the final numbers on the scoreboard will be when the team competes in Russia. It was not easy for the Danez to commit to the World Cup event in Stupino. The date interferes with the national championship of Denmark. However, the team and the Danish association found a way to accommodate both events on the Danez' agenda, and the travel plans were made. The Norwegian national team Arcteryx wil also be a part of the group competing for positions behind the medal ranks. Arcteryx is facing an uphill battle in Russia coming from the completely opposite situation compared to EADS, with a totally new national team. The NSL News will cover the Norwegian situation with the next Malevsky Cup update.