posted Jun 30th, 2004 - Round five got on the way right on schedule Wednesday morning. Beautiful summer weather greeted teams and competitors this time. The cloudy mornings of the past days were history. The conditions were great, but trouble was waiting ahead.

The sequence of round five included Block 12 (Zipper - Star). Teams and NSL audience remember the events at the Mondial 2003 when the discussion about the center point transition of the vertical techniques resulted in teams changing their strategies and several penalties. The same discussion took place at the last meet of the Texas Skydiving League, as the NSL News recently reported. The first round on Wednesday morning initiated the same discussion in Stupino, as well, when DeLand Majik received a penalty at the beginning of the third page for the violation of the center point rule interpretation.

France Maubeuge applied the same vertical technique as Majik and had a clean score sheet. However, several 4-way experts on site watched both jumps carefully and were surprised when they saw the big red X flashing over Majik's Omniskore screen and not during France's jump. Chief judge Klaus Wellens and his well educated judging panel in Stupino explained that it was a matter of inches. The split decision penalized the US team and accepted France's execution of the same block technique.

Danish head coach Pete Allum was the first one complaining about the different interpretation and evaluation of both jumps. He expected both teams to be busted or none of them, as similar or identical as both techniques of Block 12 were shown. Even Majik and Maubeuge totally agreed that this call was not fair. Both teams watched their own and the other team's jumps and did not understand the inconsistency. The French team said that they would discuss the matter with the judges later on. The ongoing discussion creates confusion and incertainties for the teams and their block training.

Both decisions could have gone the other way, as well. The penalty call for Majik was supported by three of the five judges, while only two judges pushed the red button for Maubeuge and three accepted the French maneuver. Curiously, only one of the five judges made the same penalty call in both cases. Chief judge Klaus Wellens, who is only observing the procedures, reviewed both jumps later once again in the NSL office and acknowledged that there is room for improving the consistency of the judging calls.

Life went on, and round six was on the agenda. Majik was now four points behind the French world champions. The sequence of round six was a fast one and offered the opportunity for the DeLand team to make up some ground. Majik used the opportunity exactly at the right time and scored a clean 28 for M-17-G-N, while France Maubeuge's working time was over at 25 points. Maubeuge must have been behind their own pace since Sinapsi PD and Sky Panthers came up with 25 points for the same sequence, as well. However, France congratulated Majik after this round - great sports in Stupino. The French lead was down to one point after six rounds. It was Majik's first sole highscore for a round.

Chief Judge Wellens had to make more administrative decisions in round six. Some teams touched clouds on the way down and delivered footage to the judges that could not be used. The score sheets were completely filled with green nj's, especially for Italy Kewara and the Russian team Synairgy. Wellens did not hesitate to give the teams re-jumps after watching the videos.

And - in a nutshell for round seven: DeLand Majik had to swallow another penalty. France Maubeuge had a clean 22. More details will follow tomorrow.