posted Aug 9th, 2007 - All speculation is over, the jump-off created the winner in 4-way Open, and the gold medals go to Belgium. The European Skydiving League Champion of 2005 and 2006 is FAI's World Cup 2007 champion and also the winner of FAI's European Championship of Formation Skydiving 2007.

Hayabusa Defence needed to score one more point in the jump-off round, as yesterday's NSL News story explained. Tied scores in the last competition jump of the World Cup would have given the gold medals to France Maubeuge, according to the IPC rules for tie-breaking situations.

Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle's comments live from the judging room confirm this situation between the two teams. It sounds as if France did not try to take any chances and did what they had done throughout the whole meet in Russia - present a clean and safe top performance to the judges.

It is quite impressive to take a look at the scoresheets, which are published for each round at the Omniskore website. The French 4-way team has one single mark at the scoresheets of all competition rounds at the World Cup. This means that one of the five judges saw one infringement in the 251 scoring points that France presented to the judging panel.

Hayabusa Defence had to attack. The Belgian team had performed well with memory sequences before. The jump-off round was the 5th one in Stupino, and Hayabusa could be confident after winning two of the previous four memory dives over France. The pressure was still tangible, as Exi's comments from the judging situation show.

Exi's World Cup Corner

It's time for the jump-off judging. Everybody seems to be nervous, including the judges. The 5-judge panel needs four attempts to get the working time started. Hayabusa seems to be nervous, too. They miss grips two times, but they correct them each time, no busts. However, they probably lost two scoring points here. The score comes after the third viewing: 22 points without any infringements.

Here comes the French team from Maubeuge. They perform calmly and confidently. However, the first viewing shows the end of the working time after 21 points. It is the same score after the third viewing, no busts. Hayabusa Defence is the winner of the FAI World Cup 2007 and the European Championship 2007.