posted Aug 6th, 2006 - It has been quiet for a little while, and there have been good reasons for a short break of the updates and not so good ones. First of all, to begin with the bad news, it is currently raining in Gera. The NSL News will get to the good news later today.

The rain began already on Saturday, which was supposed to be a training day. The teams and the management succeeded in getting planes in the air as long as the weather allowed any jumping. The judges had the opportunity to test the Omniskore judging system, while the German technicians installed the home made DZ-TV.

Several training jumps were shown on the public screens, including some of the top teams. Two different sequences were offered for the official training jumps, and the teams could pick the one they preferred to get officially judged.

Russia (19), Italy (17) and Germany (14) did the same jump in 8-way (16-L-5), and Ex3mo scared the German 8-way team FSC Remscheid with a clean and fast training jump. Airspeed and France made training jumps, too, but were not officially judged before the rain stopped all activities.

Belgium's Spa Hayabusa posted the highest officially judged score in the 4-way Open Class. Five teams decided to begin with the faster sequence (6-Q-F-7), and Hayabusa's 27-pointer was the only jump shown of any of the top contenders. The British Army team followed with a 21-pointer for the same sequence, which included two point deductions.

Four Open Class teams jumped the slower sequence (18-H-16). Norway's Arcteryx posted the highest score for this sequence with a 19-pointer, followed by the German team EADS with 18 points. Two teams of the female 4-way category were judged. The US team Elsinore Select scored 18 points for the faster sequence, while Norway did both jumps for the judges (13 - 10).

The rain interrupted the training jumps for good on Saturday, no more jumps were judged or shown on DZ-TV. Luckily, the weather improved for a little while when it was time for the opening ceremony, and the organizer managed to get all flag jumpers in the air while the teams lined up in front of the spectators.

NSL-TV will follow up later with a video of the competition draw and the opening ceremony. Stay tuned for the next update.

NSL-TV of the competition draw

The NSL News goes back to yesterday's events. The competition draw was originally scheduled for 9:00 pm. The meet management decided to change the order of events when the weather did not allow any training jumps any longer. The team captains were called to attend the competition draw already in the afternoon, even before the opening ceremony.

NSL-TV was still busy working on the final touches for the event coverage of the FAI World Meet 2006 when the competition draw began. However, the camera was on the way before the eleven rounds were drawn, and the NSL audience has the next opportunity to experience the live atmosphere in Gera. The video can be viewed by clicking here.

It was easy to find the right place since the crowded hangar forced people to wait outside. The sequences of the competition draw were projected to the large screen and commented by the President of the Organizing Committee, Mathias Maushake, and IPC Vice-President Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle.

Chief Judge Formation Skydiving, Sara Sacchet from Italy, introduced her judges when the draw was complete. Then the teams were called to receive their copies of the sequences. It did not take very long until the teams began with the preparations for the jumps. The NSL-TV captured the first efforts of DeLand Fire.

Engineering and creeping were interrupted when it was time for the official opening ceremony and then continued until late at night and at many different places. The NSL News found the team from Kazakhstan with their own creepers and dressed up in jumpsuits at approx. 11:00 pm on the stairs in the hotel.

The rainy weather on Sunday gave the teams enough time to carefully go through the whole competition draw. Sunday was supposed to be only for 4-way competition. However, most of the 8-way teams were on the competition site, as well, and prepared their jumps in the creeping areas.

The NSL News will follow up with comments from competitors regarding the competition draw.