posted Oct 23rd, 2006 - There is an interesting little story related to teams at the bottom of the AAA/Open Class field. Elsinore Select and Kaktus Hunter are next to each other and currently tied with 86 points. Kaktus Hunter is the second guest team, and the team members are Russian competitors.

One of the Kaktus Hunters is Anna Panasyuk who has also been a team member of the Russian national team in the female category, Ladybirds. Elsinore Select and the Ladybirds competed with and battled against each other throughout the whole competition at the World Meet 2006 in Germany in an exciting race for the bronze medals.

Elsinore Select and a Ladybird tied again

Elsinore Select and the Ladybirds were tied with 73 points (14.6) after the five rounds of the competition, and it was the end of the weather meet in Germany. There was no time for a jump-off for the 3rd place. Both teams had 17-pointers as their highest scores. Russia had won the fourth round by one point and took the bronze medals to Russia.

Kaktus Hunter with Ladybird Anna Panasyuk and Elsinore Select are once again in a deadlock, this time in Eloy and not for any medals. Both teams have three rounds left to break the tie. Another Kaktus Hunter had competed at the World Meet 2006 in Germany, and he also brought home a bronze medal for Russia.

Sergey Romanyuk is a member of the Russian 8-way team R.T. Evolution Pro. The two Russian bronze medal winners have teamed up with Ekaterina Kharitonova and Egor Gusev to enjoy the competition in Eloy as a break from their wind tunnel and skydiving fall training.

This page will be updated soon.

AZDW and Vision are in control of the first two places

It is not a very long way from the bottom of the AAA/Open Class field down to the top of the AAA/Advanced Class leaderboard. Actually, this move leads currently up by five positions. The last team of the Open Class is tied in 16th place, while the leader of the Advanced Class is in 13th place of the AAA Class leaderboard.

The name of the leader after seven rounds has not changed since the meet opener. Arizona Divewerkz has still not lost a round and allowed only Cross Keys Vision to tie an AZDW score in round six. AZDW, with Murel Addison, Annie Peterson, Blane Boynton, Cindy Nieves and Gordon Lindsay (Camera) in the line-up, is in total control of the competition.

Cross Keys Vision is in very similar control of the silver medal position. Matt LaChance, Michael Cotter, Glenn Lambert, Lara Ersenberg and Larry Rhodes (Camera) have not lost any of the seven rounds to other teams than the leader yet. Vision had to accept that several teams tied their scores. However, the very consistent performance has created a 6-point distance to Perris Voltage in 3rd place.

The only serious battle for medals takes place between Perris Voltage and another team from Cross Keys' MidAtlantic Skydiving League, O2 Project. Each team has won two rounds, the remaining three rounds were tied, and Voltage is currently up by two points. None of the other teams seems to be strong enough to make up the distance to the bronze medal position. Perris Storm in 5th place is eight points behind the 3rd place after seven rounds.

Odyssey back with full power in Round 8

Round 8 of the AAA/Open Class is already complete, and nothing has changed on the top of the leaderboard. Each of the top five teams scored 19 points, and there is not even one single mark on any of these scoreheets. It was a very clean start of the day for the top contenders.

Shannon Pilcher mentioned in his commentary that he expected Airspeed Odyssey to come back strongly today. He was right, round eight turned out to be the first round of the meet that Odyssey tied the highest score of a round.

This is not very good news for Perris Fury at the same time. Odyssey with full power is probably still a little bit too much for the challenger of a new generation. Fury had to give up two points to Odyssey, and the Golden Knights pulled away by two points, as well.

Fury still tied Velocity's score of 17 points, which maintains the 3-point advantage for the Perris uderdog after eight rounds. Elsinore Gravity ended up with 17 points within working time, as well, but lost one point due to an infringement. However, Gravity is back up to Fury's pace, which was probably the goal for today after yesterday's video tragedies.

Elsinore Select and Kaktus Hunter have broken their tied position, as well. Select won four points in round eight and outscored the next team up, Arizona Razor, for the first time. Razor consists of Gary Beyer, Lauren Stevens, Todd Hawkins, Paul Gatling and Kelly Green on camera.