posted Sep 9th, 2007 - The weather situation in Belgium has not improved much yet. It is a very unfortuntae situation for the teams at the ESL Championship 2007. The meet management had prepared a first-class event at the Spa Skydive Center, and the weather did not cooperate at all. There is a big layer of clouds over Central Europe, and even the eager European skydivers have no chance to beat this kind of weather.

The third round of the competition was almost completed on Saturday, and the scores of the AAA Class have been added to the leaderboard. It was probably the slowest round of the competition. Hayabusa Defence had to accept a 16-pointer for the 3-block sequence (15-13-2).

The last time the new World Cup champion scored below 20 points for a single round was the meet opener in Russia.

It would be a tough ending for Hayabusa if the weather does not improve. There may not be a chance to correct the low score of Round 3 and finish the meet with a better score. The combination of bad weather and low scores is not really the best scenario for a competitive team.

At the same time, the European teams are watching the US teams completing round after round in Illinois, which probably increases the pain in Spa. There is some frustration, not only between the lines, in the last update of the ESL Championship 2007:

"The weather is really letting us down. We are on a hold again. The majority of the teams has done Round 3. Only a couple of A Class teams and Rookies still need to do it. Turbulence (Netherlands - AA) has come down again with the plane. I realize it is frustrating for competitors to have a meet like this, but hey, I guess that's what competition skydiving is also about. Waiting, dealing with the pressure, staying focused and optimistic anyway... The AAA Class scores for Round 3 are posted."

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Meet Director Sven Ibens, former Hayabusa member, surely knows what he is talking about with his broad experiences. It is just difficult for teams to accept such a weather situation as a valuable experience. Hopefully, the European teams will still get a chance to get back in the air before the weekend is over.

In the meantime, all there is left to do in Spa is observing the competition action in Ottawa where Airspeed Odyssey runs away from the field in the AAA/Open Class. The three top teams (Airspeed Odyssey, Fastrax Red and Golden Knights) have not posted a score below 20 points yet. Meet Director Eric Deren can even afford to slow down the pace on Sunday morning...

However, the situation in the AA/Intermediate Class looks different between the US teams and the European teams. All four European teams (Wingnutz, Turbulence, Fend 4 Yourself, Mind Your Step) have a higher average compared to the best US teams at the moment. The competition draw and the number of completed rounds are different and do not really allow a direct comparison yet. Hopefully, more scores will still be posted in Belgium. Good luck to our European friends.