posted Aug 29th, 2006 - Yesterday's NSL News covered one of the two international meets last weekend, while an update from New England was expected to arrive at any time. The Dutch League's scoreboard needed an update with some missing scores, as well, which have now been added. In the meantime, word came from New England, and the meet was weathered out, due to a low ceiling of less than 5,000 feet for the whole weekend.

This means that only the Netherlands and the Czech Republic are responsible all scores on last weekend's leaderboard. However, the teams of both European countries kept distance from each other. The Dutch teams competed only in the A Class and the Rookie Class, while the Czech Republic had a competition only in the AAA Class.

Last weekend's competition was also the national championship for the Czech Republic, and five teams completed ten rounds in the AAA Class. It was the first 10-round competition for the Czech teams this year. The three previous meets went over the distance of six rounds.

However, one Czech team was at least already scheduled for another 10-round competition before. Sky Service, with Jirí Doležel, Jirman Jirman, Jan Lukavec, Štepán Tuma and Zbynek Živný in the line-up, has been the Czech national team of 2006 and represented the Czech Republic at the World Meet 2006 in Germany.

Unfortunately, the 10-round world meet ended up as a 5-round competition due to bad weather. Sky Service had to wait for the Czech national championship last weekend to go through the whole dive pool at the same meet for once. The best Czech 4-way team in the country's history of Formation Skydiving competition finished the first 10-round competition with an 11.9 average and renewed the status of the national team for the 2007 season.

Sky Service fulfilled the Czech Republic's league manager's goal to move his country's 4-way competition closer to the international standards. Jan Klapka had mentioned earlier this year that he hopes to raise the quality of 4-way Formation Skydiving competition in the Czech Republic by joining the European Skydiving League.

The Czech national team of 2006 competed on a completely different performance level compared to the last time a team from the Czech Republic attended a world championship. In fact, the highest Czech average before Sky Service goes back to the World Meet 1997 in Turkey (9.8). No Czech team traveled to Australia in 1999, and the national team of 2001 posted an 8.1 average at the World Meet in Spain.

The Czech national team of 2003 finished in the second to last place of 22 nations with a 7.9 average at the Mondial 2003 in France. The Czech Republic was not represented at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia. Three years after the Mondial 2003, Sky Service finished in 19th position of 25 teams at the World Meet 2006 in Germany and posted a 13.2 record average.

World Championship of Formation Skydiving	Location	Winning Average	Czech Average	Placement
World Meet 1989	Spain	15.2 (France)	8.3	20
World Meet 1991	Hungary	17.1 (France)	6.0	21
World Meet 1993	USA	19.0 (France)	---	---
World Meet 1995	France	20.7 (USA)	---	---
World Meet 1997	Turkey	21.0 (USA)	9.8	25
World Meet 1999	Australia	20.8 (France)	---	---
World Meet 2001	Spain	21.4 (USA)	8.1	22
World Meet 2003	France	22.9 (France)	7.9	21
World Meet 2004	Croatia	22.7 (USA)	---	---
World Meet 2006	Germany	23.4 (USA)	13.2	19

The 16-pointer in round two at the World Meet 2006 (K-J-C-G-3) is the second highest score in the Czech history and counts as the official Czech record for a single round. The jump can still be viewed on NSL-TV/RealXstream.com. Sky Service holds the inofficial record with the 18-pointer (F-4-E-P) at the July meet.

The first 10-round competition last weekend brought an 11.9 average for Sky Service. The Spiders took the second place after a very consistent regular season (7.2 - 7.0 - 7.5) and posted the 8.6 team record average at the right time. PB Fire had been the direct competition for the Spiders throughout the whole 2006 season (6.5 - 6.5 - 8.0) and ended up two points behind in 3rd place with the team's best meet average (8.4) as well.

It was not a very fast competition draw for the 10-round meet, and four of the five teams still posted the best meet averages of the 2006 season. The Bad Boys in 4th place copied the progression of the three medal winners (6.7 - 7.2 - 7.3) with the best average of 7.8 last weekend.

Jan Klapka is happy but not done yet. The Czech Republic will also send a team to the ESL Championship 2006 for the first time. And then he will begin with the preparations for the 2007 season. His 2006 national team, Sky Service, completed the first step of the Czech progression and set an example. More Czech teams are expected to follow the leader.