posted Aug 9th, 2007 - The competition in Russia is not over yet. The 8-way event is still in full swing. There is not as much excitement in the race for the gold and silver medals as it was in the 4-way Open competition. France Maubeuge and Russia are far away from each other in first and second place, and the other teams have no chance to catch up with them.

There is still a tight competition going on between Italy and Germany for the bronze medal position though. Italy had won the first two rounds on Monday and was up by four points over Germany. However, Germany's EADS team came back with vengeance on Tuesday morning and beat Italy's Ex3mo badly with a new German 8-way record jump of 21 points. This jump can now be viewed on NSL-TV.

Germany was now up by one point after three rounds, defended the bronze medal position for two more rounds and still had the 1-point lead at the end of Tuesday's 8-way competition.

Today's first two jumps reversed the situation between Germany and Italy once again. Ex3mo came back with new energy this morning and turned the 1-point deficit into a 1-point lead in Round 6. Germany lost even more ground in Round 7, and Italy has a 3-point lead going into the last three rounds of the 8-way competition.

Dr. Rainer "Exi" Hoenle reports from the 8-way events this morning.

Exi's World Cup Corner

The judges have not slept while the 4-way teams from Belgium and France went up for the jump-off round. The 8-way teams had already landed after their Round 6. The meet management had to invest extra time to bring France back into the rotation. The French 4-way members are also competing in 8-way.

The British 8-way team drops a grip and loses a point, the second French team scores 11 clean points. Italy attacks and manages to get to 16 points, not very clean, luckily loses only one point and has 15 points on the scoreboard. Germany struggles with an open grip. Closing it takes exacly the missing time for the 15th scoring point. The 14 points in time turn into a 13-pointer on the scoreboard after a split 3-2 decision. Italy has the new 1-point lead for the bronze medals. Clean 16 and 19 points for Russia and France.

Round 7 brings another broken grip and a bust at the same spot for the British team. The second French team loses a point, as well. Italy is much cleaner this time in a more technical round. Germany's EADS team has a clean round too, but cannot keep up with Ex3mo's pace and loses two more points. It will not be easy for Germany to challenge Italy's new 3-point lead. The Italian team currently looks like the more professional line-up. Russia and France are posting clean 17-pointers.