posted Sep 19th, 2004 - Round one of the 8-way competition brought a quite surprising picture. Neither Russia nor USA ended up on top of the field. The new French team took the lead with a 21-pointer as the highest score for this opening round. While USA Airspeed kept up with the French pace and ended up only shortly behind with 20 points, the defending world champions from Russia finished far behind after 50 seconds of working time.

Russia's 8-way team went significantly slower throughout the whole jump. Airspeed captain Craig Girard mentioned that the Russian engineering did not seem to be very efficient, and it looked like they had level issues, as well. The Airspeed veteran was still cautious: "This was only round one..." However, it still appeared as if France and USA went with the same speed, while Russia was one pace level behind. Round two is on the way and will show whether Russia will join France and the USA on the very top or not.

The German 8-way team surprisingly holds the fourth position after round one. Italy finished in this position at the Mondial 2003 with a 14.4 average, while Germany was in 7th place with a 10.9 average in Gap. The German 8-way in Croatia is a new team and has trained in 2003 and 2004. Germany Remscheid is ready to challenge the Italian team for the "amateur title" and the fourth place. Italy lost four points due to two penalties in round one and will surely be back to make up the current distance of three points.