posted Feb 15th, 2016 - Sweden and Finland are neighboring countries in Scandinavia. However, the southern parts of both countries are separated by a large body of water, the Gulf of Bothnia, which eventually connects with the Atlantic Ocean, through the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.

Both capital cities (Stockholm, Helsinki) are located in the southern parts where most of both countries' citizens live. It takes about ten hours to cross the Gulf of Bothnia from the Finnish shores (Turku) to Stockholm by ferry.

Teams and competitors from Finland have made the same or similar trips in the past to attend events in Sweden, and there has also been some traffic in the other direction once in a while. Last weekend, the traffic was again coming from Finland to Sweden, and it was catching the attention of the Sun Path Products NSL News.

Sweden/Finland Indoor 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		8,5,17.	12,M,9	11,2,L	3,19,B	20,C,G,4	F,10,6	A,14,21	D,22,O,J	18,Q,K,H	15,P,E,7	Total	Avg
1	Team Volo	SE	22	24	21	18	17	22	21	26	28	27	226	22.6
2	Echochamber	SE	21	21	21	20	21	22	22	21	26	26	221	22.1
3	Tigers	FI	18	17	18	21	19	18	19	22	20	22	194	19.4
4	Telakka	FI	10	16	15	16	17	17	22	18	18	21	170	17.0
5	Gryttjom Rocks	SE	13	14	15	15	14	15	16	18	19	18	157	15.7
6	Team C4	SE	13	15	13	13	14	14	14	17	19	18	150	15.0
7	Aurora	SE	13	15	14	16	12	13	16	17	17	16	149	14.9
8	Team X	SE	11	17	13	13	15	14	17	17	14	17	148	14.8
9	Puumat	FI	14	16	12	13	15	14	15	11	16	18	144	14.4

Organizers in both countries finally succeeded in putting together a Scandinavian event for teams and competitors from both countries at the same place and at the same time. It was in fact the national indoor championship that both countries held together at Bodyflight Stockholm.

Finnish FAI judge Jukka Olkkonen said that it was the first time that Finland and Sweden held their national championships together, after several years of discussing this option.

The event generated three different and separated leaderboards in 4-way FS, one for Sweden, one for Finland, while the third combined leaderboard is not only a SKYLEAGUE.COM feature this time. Additional leaderboards came with other events, including 4-way VFS.

Sweden/Finland Indoor 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		20,4	C,E,2	A,M,11	P,J,21	9,N,14	F,7,8	D,H,G,6	K,B,L,Q	O,22,19.	15,18	Total	Avg
1	Tahma	FI	9	16	16	14	15	15	15	23	10	10	143	14.3
2	Cornix	SE	12	12	14	18	16	17	14	13	10	11	137	13.7
3	Funnel Boys	FI	10	14	12	13	14	13	15	20	7	10	128	12.8
4	KRAM	SE	8	13	10	14	12	14	12	20	10	10	123	12.3
5	RW4	SE	10	12	13	14	14	13	8	15	9	9	117	11.7
6	Ace is Nicer	SE	9	9	12	11	11	12	8	16	10	8	106	10.6

Team Volo, who are Sweden's reigning 4-way outdoor champions, had more competition in the AAA Class than they might have expected. Volo, with former Arcteryx member Matthias Nord, had finished in 5th place at the 1st FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships with a 23.6 average.

Echochamber, with other former members of Swedish top teams, was three points ahead of the national outdoor champions after Round 7. Volo then picked up the pace and won the last three rounds to turn the 3-point deficit into a 5-point victory.

Finland's national team, the Tigers, finished in 3rd place on the combined leaderboard. The Tigers competed with a different lineup in Sweden. Emilia Sormunen replaced Joonas Karjalainen for the indoor competition. The Tigers are one of the teams who are also registered for the World Challenge 2016.

Sweden/Finland Indoor 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie		C,O,M	N,A,B	D,L,E	K,F,J	H,P,G	Q,N,C	J,E,G	H,K,A	O,B,D	M,F,P	Total	Avg
1	Penguines of the Sky	SE	23	17	13	20	18	18	18	19	-	-	146	18.3
2	Speedbombers	FI	14	16	10	13	17	15	16	11	9	21	142	14.2
3	4K	FI	16	14	11	15	12	9	10	10	16	22	135	13.5
4	Flailing Sirkus	FI	10	9	5	13	11	12	13	10	14	25	122	12.2
5	In-Formation	SE	7	8	6	6	5	5	8	6	8	8	67	6.7

Telakka, the next AAA Class team from Finland, finished right behind the Tigers, while the all-female Puumat lineup battled with two Swedish teams for the best spot at the bottom of the AAA Class leaderboard.

Finland had the upper hand in the AA Class competition. The Sun Path Products NSL News mentioned recently that Tahma would move up from last year's A Class competition to the AA Class at the upcoming World Challenge. The national indoor championship was a great test, and Tahma finished on the same scoring level as in the A Class last year. The Funnel Boys added a 3rd place for Finland in the same category.

Two of the three Finnish Rookie Class teams (K4, Flailing Sirkus) came back for their second national indoor championships after last year's inaugural event at the Sirius wind tunnel in Finland. The Speedbombers were the third Rookie Class team from Finland in Stockholm and took the 2nd place.