posted Aug 6th, 2007 - The 8-way competition is now in full swing, as well. The artistic events are running at the same time. Unfortunately, Omniskore's Pegasus scoring system does not seem to be working very well. FAI Controller Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle mentioned is his last update that the judges of the artistic events have gone back to paper and pencil. There has not been any transmission of artistic competition jumps on the local DZ-TV in Stupino so far, and the scores have not been posted yet.

However, this all does not count for the 8-way competition. The French national 8-way team, reigning world champion, already has a 3-point lead after the first round. It was to be expected that France would not have much competition in 8-way at all. Italy's 8-way team Ex3mo is even stronger than expected and tied Russia's 17-pointer in the first round. Germany's new 8-way team will have to show more if it wants to become a medal contender in the future.

Solly Williams sent the next update from his angle in Russia and summarizes the first day of the 4-way competition.

Solly's World Cup Corner

The meet is under way with two rounds completed. Russia's Sky Panthers ripped one up and held off France Maubeuge by two points. The French team started with a shaky exit and a slow second point but got things back on track and finished strong for a 21-pointer. The Norwegian team Arcteryx had a solid skydive and was unlucky not to have the freeze frame included for the 20th point. They had to settle for a 19-pointer, as the Germans did.

Belgium's Hayabusa said they had a shaky start and overcame a few glitches to rest on 19 points, too. Hats off to the Belgians for creating a non-repeater after Block 4 (Monopod - Monopod). The other Russian team here in contention is Black Cat finishing Round 1 with a 20-pointer.

We had a break in jumping then and enjoyed the opening ceremony that concluded in a spectacular air display. I will try to get some photos for the NSL News.

The scores for Round 2 came out about 45 minutes ago, and things have livened up some. Major casualties happened to the Sky Panthers who had a few un-synchronized keys, which caused a double-bust and reduced the 25 points in time to 23 on the scoreboard. The Sky Panthers once again showed some traditional unconventional engineering.

Hayabusa tore one up this time with a world competitive 27-pointer. Very nice indeed, and for the most part very clean, too. Arcteryx had a few minor glitches that got severely punished. The quadruple-bust reduced the 25 points to a 21 on the scoreboard. I didn't see the French round, but after speaking to them at the opening ceremony they seemed happy. Quite true, as a posted 26-pointer put them up at the top of the leaderboard.

The French female team that won silver medals in Gera last year has had a personnel change. Unfortunately, I have not been able to see any of this category's jumps due to my own commitments. The leaderboard indicates that this team is very strong and a good hussle for the minor placings is on the cards.

Other mentions include the new Russian female team JetBats which has no history yet but a few very strong players in the line-up. The Ukrainian team has also had some personnel changes. The German team Chicas seemed relatively happy with the performance.

The 8-way competition is underway, and the French world champions are outright favorites. They will hopefully dazzle us with their stuff. Expect a good fight between Russia and Italy for the second place, with the Germans hanging onto the coat tails.

The Weather forecast is good going forward. The 4-way competition starts tomorrow at 8:30 am.