posted May 31st, 2009 - The NSL News has again a special treat for the NSL YouTube TV audience. The reason for the latest video came with the meet information from Italy where Sinapsi member Livio Piccolo hosted the first competition of the 2009 season at his home dropzone in Fano.

Livio Piccolo and Sara Sacchet, Italian IPC Delegate and Advisor to IPC's Formation Skydiving Committee, provided the meet information of the annual "Shake Competition" in Fano. All six rounds were completed on Saturday, and credit for good meet management and judging was given to Meet Director Roberto Mascio.

The Italian teams competed in all four competition classes, and AAA Class team GXT finished in 2nd place of the 31 teams in this category.

GXT is a new Italian all-female lineup (Alessandra D'Annibale, Emanuela De Martino, Monica Sperduti, Eva Tusset), and the names of the GXT members were the reason for the NSL News to take a closer look at the NSL 2004 Archives. The GXT lineup includes Alessandra D'Annibale and Eva Tusset who competed for Italian's national 4-way team in the female category, Kewara, at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia.

Kewara battled with the Russian team Ladybirds for the bronze medals and ended up two points behind in 4th place with a 15.1 average. USA (16.9) and France (16.4) won the gold and silver medals in Croatia.

Livio Piccolo was almost in exactly the same situation with his own team Sinapsi in 2004. Italy's national team battled with Russia's Sky Panthers for the bronze medals and ended up one single point behind in 4th place with a 21.0 average. USA (22.7) and France (21.9) also won the gold and silver medals in the Open Class.

Kewara member of 2004, Eva Tusset, was not available at last weekend's competition in Fano, and Livio Piccolo filled the slot, as his own team, the new Sinapsi lineup, did not attend the competition.

The NSL News found a video in the 2004 Archives that was recorded in May 2004 and shows the competition jumps of the Florida Skydiving League's May meet in DeLand. Kewara was holding a training camp in DeLand and attended the meet, as well, with a 16.8 average after six rounds.

The winning team had a 25.5 average after the same six rounds, and it was the coming 4-way world champion of 2004, DeLand Majik (Joey Jones, Gary Smith, Solly Williams, Doug Park). The new NSL YouTube TV video includes the Majik jumps at this FSL competition, as well.

Livio Piccolo and Sara Sacchet also reported that the lineup of the only A Class team at the competition in Fano, Angels, consisted of three female competitors (Claudia Balestrazzi, Alessandra De Rango, Daniela Paolini) and the pilot of the Pilatus Porter, Danilo Chiaraluce. They said that he still enjoys 4-way competition jumps and joins some lineups once in a while.

The Italian Rookie Class team C.S.E. Esercito ended up in the top spot of the 16 teams last weekend, with a 10.3 average. This is a lineup of the Italian Army with young team members and only a total of 37 team jumps. Sara Sacchet thinks that C.S.E. Esercito promises a lot for the future.

The Blue Rebels are from Greece and competed in Italy already last year (7.8 in May). They have two new team members this year with only a total of 90 jumps each and started the 2009 season with a 6.5 average in the Rookie Class.