posted Aug 8th, 2007 - The semifinals have been completed in the 4-way Open class competition, while the female teams have already completed all ten rounds. The German Chicas came back strongly in Round 9 and won the bronze medals. France and Russia took the first two places.

Nothing has changed in the Open Class. Hayabusa Defence and France Maubeuge decided to leave the final decision for a real showdown in Round 10 and tied their scores once again in Round 9 with 30-pointers each. Hayabusa is still up by one point.

The Sky Panthers added another highscore for a single round to their account with the 32-pointer. This makes it a total of four sole highscores for the Russian team. Hayabusa has only two sole highscores and France not even one at all. It is still too late for the Sky Panthers, the gold medal position seems to be out of reach. On the other hand, it is quite interesting to see that France is still only one single point behind the first place without any sole highscores at all. France Maubeuge tied the highest score for a single round in Rounds 6, 7 and 8.

The final showdown is next. Solly Williams witnessed the semifinals in Stupino for the NSL audience.

Solly's World Cup Corner

The 4-way events will more than likely be over today. We've had weather problems, and it's pretty windy right now. 8-way is on hold. It is a tough call for the meet director of the sports side of things her, Anatoly "Toly" Zhirov. The 8-way competition is stuck in Round 5, and he has still elected to finish 4-way first. I'm sure there will be some grumblings, but it is hard to please all.

The women's semifinals are done, and we're waiting for Round 10 to get a call. France has been quite calm here and never looked under pressure. To hang in with the British female team next year might mean kicking it up a notch. However, I'm not sure this is the designated 4-way for next year. With this performance out of their less preferred jump plane we still hope so.

The talk of Round 9 was the German Chicas all of a sudden under considerable pressure having given up the 3rd place to the Ukrainian team in Round 8. They rose to the occasion and stuck with the top scores of the round to give them a 5-point buffer going into the finals. Good jumping and, no doubt, great coaching from the former Ukrainian coach and EADS 8-way member, Thomas "Pivelenko" Spielvogel...

The semifinals of the 4-way Open class are complete. Judging is about to commence. Belgium told me they got in the region of 30 points. I know the Germans had their best so far and will post 27 points. The Norwegians are happy too. We await scores.

The 8-way competition was interesting yesterday. The German 8-way team chose the perfect opportunity to post a new national record. The 21-pointer in Round 3, and the Italians crumbled opening the door. They tied Round 4, and now the meet is for third place, unless there is catastrophe further ahead.

Other snips are that Irish Spirit is complete and happy with their performance. As is the team from Denmark that missed some training jumps here on site and didn't generate enough good rounds. This is the first world event for many teams here, and I'm sure the learning curve is steep.

We await the scores of the top guns in the Open class. I'm predicting the Russian camp, that has nothing to lose, now light one up, too. Germany just received their 27 points. We await more...