posted Sep 21st, 2004 - Block 12 kept the NSL News busy for a little while. However, all involved parties cooperated and made it as easy as possible to put the whole picture together. There might be additional feedback coming after the conclusion of the whole competition in Croatia. Both Ted Wagner and Klaus Wellens mentioned that they would like to provide some more insights later on.

The competition was surely continued in the meantime, and the NSL audience had the chance to be up-to-date. The scores were added consistently, and new NSL-TV has been uploaded. Several video files can be found on the NSL-TV page. The files can also be identified by the little icon that sits right beside the score for a round in the scoring table.

Each of the five teams in the top positions of the 8-way event have provided their footage for NSL-TV, four of them for round five, including Airspeed, and France is shown with round six. The three teams currently in the medal positions of the 4-way Women's event are also featured on NSL-TV. Last not least, four jumps of the 4-way Open class complete the current coverage. The NSL-TV will continue trying to upload as much footage as possible.

The 8-way competition was stopped at noon once again. The event is now at least two rounds behind the other two events. Two 8-way rounds were done every morning in Rijeka, together with the 4-way Women's event. The female teams still completed one additional round when the 8-way teams packed up. The afternoons have been reserved for the 4-way Open event.

The 8-way competition has shown a different picture compared to what could have been expected. The defending world champion from Russia does not seem strong enough to hold off the challengers from Arizona, and even France is currently pulling away from the Russian team. There are four more rounds to go, however, Airspeed has a seven-point lead over the Russians. It will be very difficult for the title defender to come back from that deficit.

It proves even difficult for Russia to hold off the new and young French team. Four points are between the second and the third place. Most likely, France is not even looking back at this point. In fact, the French 8-way team won today's two rounds by one point over the US team from Arizona.

Airspeed's incredible round two still carries the lead and put the French team far enough behind for a good night sleep on Sunday and Monday. France has kept up ever since and might gain confidence and strength with the current results of the last rounds. No doubt that the Airspeed veterans Craig Girard, Kirk Verner, Neal Houston and former Golden Knight Chris Talbert are well aware of the challenge and will keep the whole team on alert for the remaining four rounds.

Germany still holds the fourth place that the 8-way team took over Italy in the first two rounds. Italy tries to fight back and has reduced the distance to three points. However, the German team does not seem to stumble and looks motivated to defend the best position a German 8-way team has held in a long time. Australia, Austria, South Africa and the UK 8-way team are all still in a battle for the next spot behind Germany and Italy.