8-way - Round 1

posted Aug 7th, 2006 - Monday morning offered a nice surprise for participants and event management. Despite a weather forecast that was not very promising the sun was shining, and the skies were clear enough. Load one was scheduled for 7:00 am, and it took off at the planned time.

The planes were loaded with teams of the 8-way competition, 4-way Women and the artistic events. NSL-TV is ready to capture the first jumps and will also have a nice surprise for the NSL audience. All meet jumps will be linked directly to the scores on a high quality level. The new partnership with RealXstream.com made this possible. The NSL News will follow up with more details of the new NSL-TV later.

Italy - Germany

Round one in 8-way has already progressed to the top three nations. Italy and Germany shared the plane together and exchanged greetings and good wishes before the start of the next battle. Russia and France boarded the next plane together.

Italy's round one is already running on DZ-TV, the 12-pointer will be shown on NSL-TV very soon. The jumps of the earlier teams are already available for viewings. Germany's round one is now running for the judges, and the home turf defender won this round by two points.

Russia and France

France and Russia were next on the Omniskore screen. France lost one point due to an incomplete Compressed Accordeon on the first page. The French 8-way machine looked a little bit nervous and not as clean compared to the performance at the World Cup 2005. However, once the flow of the dive was established, it looked just like last year. This was the first round, and the 18-pointer is on the scoreboard.

Russia completed the first round with a 16-pointer. The team showed great key awareness when glitches and a hesitation interrupted the flow. The judges liked the Russian key control and gave points for all scoring formation.

The meet is currently on a weather hold.

NSL-TV interview with French 8-way coach

The teams are still on a weather hold, and Arizona Airspeed is the only 8-way team that has not done round one yet. The NSL News used the time to find 8-way experts for a quick evaluation. The Russian 8-way team was preparing the next round on the creepers with members of the French 8-way team observing.

French coach Erwan Pouliquen kindly took the time to comment his team's performance in round one. The interview can be viewed by clicking here. The video begins in the creeping area with the Russian preparations for round two.

Erwan Pouliquen is the technical coach for the French 8-way team. He works under the supervision of the French national coach and manager Jerome David who is in Gera, as well. Jerome David also covers the technical part of the training for the French 4-way team in the female category, and he does not get engaged in Erwan Pouliquen's work.

Erwan Pouliquen is also a member of the French national 4-way team, France Gap Nice Icarius Autrement, which recently qualified for the World Meet 2006. He won the 4-way gold medal at the World Meet 2003 in France with France Maubeuge. Now he has a comeback with two of his 2003 teammates.

NSL News interview with Craig Girard

The weather hold was long enough to catch Arizona Airspeed before the reigning world champion would go up and complete round one. The South African 8-way team will be in the same plane for a re-jump of round one after going through industrial haze at the first attempt.

Airspeed veteran Craig Girard once again took the time and had the patience for an interview with the NSL News. Craig Girard competes at his 10th World Championship of Formation Skydiving. He is currently the most experienced 8-way competitor in the world and has probably been through any possible competition situation with high pressure, including jump-offs and tie-breakers.

Due to his experience, he had a very good understanding of the French situation before and after the first round. He expects the French team to come back with an oustanding performance in the next round. First of all, Arizona Airspeed has the chance to take the lead at the very beginning of the competition, and Craig Girard is confident that this will happen. His team went to straight to the next session of jump preparation for round one after the interview.

The interview can be viewed by clicking here.