posted Apr 7th, 2007 - Bodyflight Bedford was a very busy place this morning. Fortunately, owner Paul Mayer has used all available space in the large building to accommodate the teams and competitors without any problems. NSL-TV will offer the valued audience a virtual video tour later on and present the impressive facilities.

The teams gathered in the morning for a meet briefing in the spacy hangar where the meet management explained the rules for the competition. Each team would have a flying time of five minutes to apply the tunnel rules and get familiar with the tunnel air before the competition.

As soon as the briefing was completed the teams were called in flying order to use their tunnel time for practice. The observation area was already crowded when the top teams entered the 16-foot flying chamber.

The judges offered two official sequences for the training rounds. They are using a brandnew judging system that offers the same features as Omniskore and more. The whole procedure is computerized and digitalized from the beginning to the end and seems to present a new generation of event judging. The NSL News will follow up with more information later.

Next step on the countdown to the actual competition was the draw, which was handed out to the teams when the practice session was completed. The teams went to work right away and prepared for the first round, which is scheduled to begin at 1:15 pm today.

The French team Maubeuge Aerokart had bad luck during the practice time in the tunnel. 8-way world champion Clement Martin St. Leon injured his hand during a block maneuver and was in great pain for a while. He still hopes that he can recover and jump in the competition. However, his team is prepared to use an alternate.

19 of the 22 registered teams entered the competition this morning, and the scoring table has already been posted at the event page. A Paraclete line-up was expected to compete in Bedford, as well as another French line-up. Local Bodyflight team Havoc lost a team member due to injury yesterday and had to cancel the meet.

The 19-team field is ready to go very soon, and the top teams will show the best tunnel flying the skydiving world can recently see anywhere. Videos of the competition will be uploaded by NSL-TV as soon as it will be available and possible. Stay tuned, scores and updates will follow very soon.