posted Sep 11th, 2006 - The ESL Championship 2006 had a special meaning for the Belgium national 4-way team Spa Hayabusa. The competition in Spa last weekend was also the last event for the 2006 line-up, which has been together for several years. The team knew this already before the competition began and celebrated a great and successful team history on their home turf.

David Grauwels, Andy Grauwels, Sven Ibens, Roy Janssen and Bruno van den Eede on camera lifted the 4-way competition in Belgium up to a completely new performance and scoring level in the past years. Spa Hayabusa has earned a lot of respect and was even considered one of the underdogs for medals at the FS World Championship this year.

The 2006 season included new records for a single round (45-pointer in April) and for the best Belgian meet average in Belgian 4-way history (21.3 at the same competition). The 6th place at the World Meet 2006 in Germany came with a 20.4 average. Only one Belgium team had ever climbed that far up in the world meet rankings. The 6th place in 1991 came with a 12.5 average.

Spa Hayabusa won the 6th place already at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia and defended it successfully this year. However, this year's 6th place came after bad luck in round three, as the NSL News story on August 9 explained during the World Meet 2006 live coverage from the competition site. The Belgian team could have ended up in 5th place under better circumstances.

However, the bad luck this year is not the reason why the same line-up will not continue from here on. In fact, the latest update from the team's headquarters sounds as if the efforts might even be increased in the next two years. Three team members consider the options of becoming a full-time team:

"Spa Hayabusa had a team meeting last week, and the result is that Sven Ibens will stop competing for Spa Hayabusa. He will still be involved with many things for our team. However, David Grauwels, Andy Grauwels and Roy Janssen know for 100% that they will continue with team training and competition. The team will also look for a new team videographer."

The remaining Spa Hayabusa members provided more insights of the team's future: "As you all know, Spa Hayabusa has been a weekend team so far. The new plans include the options of becoming a semi-professional or even a full-time professional team, depending on the budget."

David Grauwels, Andy Grauwels and Roy Janssen even consider joining the Belgian Army for their team purposes: "We have several options to consider, including the Army team, and we are also in full swing looking for a new 4th member. We will provide the details as soon as we have made any decisions."

ESL Manager Willy Boeykens provided additional feedback from participants of the ESL Championship 2006. Mechie van der Schaaf-Voermans, Rookie Class competitor with team Whooops, commented the events from the Dutch perspective on Saturday morning:

"The ESL competition in Spa started yesterday with a lot of clouds. After an hour the weather started to clear up, and we were off! There are 35 teams participating in the competition, ten of them are from the Netherlands. We managed to complete five rounds yesterday. At the end off the day, the overall score of the Netherlands was second behind Belgium.

It is an exciting competition, especially because of the new scoring system. The jumps are shown on a big screen, and this system allows us to see the live judging of each jump! A lot off hoorays cheered through the hangar. The weather is beautiful this morning, and the competition is fully in progress. Whatever the end result may be, and whether we will be able to keep the ESL Spirit or not, I know there will be a lot of partying going on this evening."

The event judges in Spa evaluated the new judging system from Finland from their own perspective. The "DDC Scoring System" was used for the first time at an international competition. The judges received two hours of introduction and training the night before the competition, and this turned out to be enough preparation to start a competition with 35 teams in four competition classes without any problems. Willy Boeykens pointed out that 210 jumps were judged on a 6-round day.

The NSL News will follow up with more detailed information on the new system.