posted Jul 6th, 2005 - Tuesday became a very long day, especially for the judges and the NSL News. The 4-way teams still completed two rounds in the afternoon, and it was halftime for each event. The judges finished their work around 10 pm, and that was also the time when the last scores and videos were uploaded.

The schedule for Wednesday gave the 4-way teams an easier start in the morning. The first loads were called to the planes at 10:30 am. The earlier morning was used for the Accuracy competition. The wind conditions usually favor an early start and a late finish for the Accuracy competitors. In fact, there were still Accuracy parachutes in the air when the Formation Skydiving judges finished their work last night.

The last NSL News story of the 4-way Open competition covered the Fastrax highscore in round three on Monday. This impressive and surprising performance was not only a coincidence. Fastrax made contact with the top of the leaderboard on Monday and maintained it through rounds four and five on Tuesday.

The 4-way Open leaderboard is as tight as it was expected to be. The four US teams, DeLand Fire, Fastrax, Airspeed Velocity and Airspeed Odyssey, are in the four top positions, and medal contenders can be found down to the eighth place, including Russia Extreme.RU, Russia Sky Panthers, Italy Sinapsi PD and Belgium Spa Hayabusa.

Airspeed Odyssey scored the highscore of 23 points in round four and still lost one deducted point. DeLand Fire lost one point, as well, and still posted the second highest score of the round with 22 points. Round five was very challenging for many teams. Block 22 (T - Chinese T) was on the top of the sequence and a difficult task out the door.

Many teams had problems with the subterminal move, including DeLand Fire with a serious collision between the cat piece and one individual flyer. The collision caused a serious loss of time, and it was surprising that the leader still ended up sharing the highest score of the round with Fastrax, the Sky Panthers and Spa Hayabusa. Airspeed Velocity lost one point in the judging room and had to allow Fastrax to catch up. DeLand Fire's lead went up to two points.

The NSL News was asking former DeLand Majik member Joey Jones to comment the 4-way Open situation at halftime. Joey Jones is coaching the Canadian national team Stratosfear, and he is also the alternate for Airspeed Velocity.

NSL News: Joey, what are Your job assignments here in Russia?

Joey Jones: I am coaching the Canadian 4-way team, and I am also the alternate for Airspeed Velocity and the Airspeed 8-way.

NSL News: What can You tell us about the current Airspeed line-ups?

Joey Jones: The two Airspeed 4-ways have different engineerings. Odyssey is flying more the traditional Airspeed style. Velocity is applying more the Majik style and engineering. The whole Velocity approach to the jump is more the Majik style. The flow of a jump was a very special Majik thing. DeLand Fire gets the closest to that style. In general, different teams have different engineerings and bring different scores.

NSL News: Let's look at the other teams.

Joey Jones: It is an intersting year with so many new teams. It is really everybody's ball game until the end of the meet. In the days of Airspeed against France, it was very tough to make it up with a 3- or 4-point difference. That has changed. Here and now it is much more open.

DeLand Fire looks the most like the old Majik team, very strong. Despite some unforced errors, they they are in the best position to win this competition.

Fastrax is definitely the dark horse of the competition. I dont think anybody expected them to be in second place after five rounds. I knew they were capable of a 20+ average after spending a week with them last month. But I did not expect it so soon. Good job, Fastrax, and keep up the surprises. It is impressive, hats off to them. However, here in Russia, they are still the most experienced and trained team, as of time and jumps.

Airspeed Velocity is as good as expeceted. With all these gold medals and experience, everybody expects them to be good. So they better be good.

Airspeed Odyssey looks very strong despite one bad jump. I am sure that all the competition experience they collect here will benefit them and show at the USPA Championship 2005.

NSL News: What about the international competition?

Joey Jones: The Russian battle is awesome on all fronts. As far as the skydiving goes, Extreme.RU has made big improvements this year, and the Sky Panthers have maintained their high scores even through a member change. Russia will be a force for the medals at the next world meet.

Spa Hayabusa and Italy are tied with the Sky Panthers with a 19.6 average. They are still in striking distance of the podium. Nine teams competing for three slots is almost the most competive world competition in history. Hayabusa is the youngest and least experienced team of this group, it will be interesting to watch their progress for the next few years. Italy we will see in 2008. Too bad about the eligibility stuff, but that's how the rules were interpreted.

NSL News: Thank You for the interview, Joey.

Round six of the 4-way Open event is in progress, stay tuned.