posted Mar 12th, 2008 - The coverage of the Valentine's Meet 2008 is not really over yet - neither for NSL-TV nor for the NSL News. Additional information and meet videos arrived from Italy.

The Eutelia Spin Team attended the February meet in Eloy, as the scoreboard has already shown ever since the scores were posted. The NSL News has covered the situation of the Italian 4-way champion of 2007 with several articles this year. The last update was posted on 7 February 2008 and introduced the Italian team Felix Poseidon as the country's national team for 2008.

The Spin Team filed an appeal to the decision of the Italian skydiving association (FIPAS) and then moved on with the team's athletic activities. These plans included the first competition this year at the Valentine's Meet 2008.

It was the first meet for the new lineup with former Sinapsi PD and current Ex3mo member Marco Arrigo. The Spin Team's 2007 lineup (Allessandro Giovannini, Antonella Chiarin, Enea Savorelli and Mirko Righi) had won the Italian Nationals 2007 with a 17.2 average after ten rounds.

The new lineup, with Marco Arrigo replacing Enea Savorelli, opened the 2008 season with a 16.0 average after seven rounds at the Valentine's Meet. Team speaker Mirko Righi explained that his team then had to withdraw from the competition due to a badly injured thumb.

However, the Spin Team was pleased with its performance in Eloy. Mirko Righi provided additional insights from the team's perspective after the meet experience in February:

"The new element (Marco Arrigo) gave the team a real good push as of training and techniques. The opportunity of competing with such high-caliber teams was also a wonderful experience for us. We are extremely happy to have had such great results so early in the season. We worked very hard on our exits and paid particular attention to our techniques. Unfortunately, we had a total of six penalties for some video problems and missed grips."

Three of the Spin Team's meet jumps can now be viewed on NSL-TV. These videos show that the Italian team seems to be more familiar with the right-hand door of the Pilatus Porter, compared to Airspeed Odyssey and Canada Evolution. The Pilatus Porter is the most popular plane in Italy, and the Italian teams have applied continuity plans with a right-hand pattern for many years.

The Spin Team lost two points with video penalties at and after the exit in Round 1. The next point was deducted in Round 2 for a bad grip. The fast third round is also featured on NSL-TV, and the Spin Team was happy with the actual performance. However, the judges deducted three points, and the 24 points in working time turned into a 21-pointer on the scoreboard.

Mirko Righi added that his team has not given up yet on its trip to the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in August in France:

"If the Federation gives us the opportunity to go to the World Meet in France then we are confident that we will progress to the point of being worthy of representing our country. Our goal for the next three years is to get to a position where we can compete for the first place at the World Meet in 2010. We are extremely satisfied how our training routine has been progressing, and we are ever willing to put in the hard work necessary to become a top squad."

The Spin Team also sent greetings and good wishes for the upcoming FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008 to the Canadian team and Airspeed Odyssey. The Evolution members prepared a special feature for the Italian team one evening in Eloy - an Italian dinner. Airspeed's Craig Girard helped the Spin Team whenever possible.