posted May 30th, 2006 - Three additional teams were recently registered for the World Meet 2006. Spain with one team in the 4-way Open Class and one team in the 4-way Women's Class, plus a 4-way Open Class team from Estonia bring the total number of teams to 45. These 45 teams were registered by a total of 25 nations at this point. There are still three weeks left until the final registration deadline, and the participation may still increase.

The total number of participating teams is already higher compared to the last World Meet in Croatia 2004 where 41 teams from 23 nations competed in the same three competition classes (21 - 10 - 10). This year, 24 teams are registered for the 4-way Open Class event, 11 teams for the 4-way Women's Class and 10 teams for the 8-way event.

The event pages for the World Meet have links to more detailed team information, and more team pages have already been set up for several of the registered teams. Seven countries have signed up their national teams in each of the three competition classes: Australia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, South Africa and the USA.

Three countries will be represented by teams in the 4-way and 8-way Open event (Belgium, Italy, Austria), and three other countries have signed up their teams only in the two 4-way events (Netherlands, Norway, Spain). Teams from 11 countries will compete only in the 4-way Open event (Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Cypres, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, New Zealand, Sweden), and Switzerland has registered only one team in the 4-way Women's Class.

The currently registered teams for the World Meet in Germany reflect an upswing in the 4-way participation at world meets and also in the total number of participating teams. The 24 teams that are signed up in the 4-way Open Class event at this point also add up to a higher number of teams compared to the World Meet in France 2003 (22).

The currently registered 11 teams in the 4-way Women's Class beat the previously highest participation of 10 teams in Spain 2001 and Croatia 2004. The ten registered 8-way teams match the number of teams in 2001 and 2004. The total number of 45 teams takes the 3rd place behind the World Meets in Spain 2001 (54) and Turkey 1997 (51).

The 4-way Women's Class was officially included for the first time at the World Meet in Spain 2001. The additional event increased the total number of participating teams in Spain to a new record high in 2001 (54), even though the 8-way field was smaller than before.

The numbers dropped after the record participation in Spain 2001 and have begun to move up the scale every year ever since. The World Meet 2006 in Germany reflects this general upswing.