posted Jul 14th, 2008 - The first outdoor competition jump on the second day of the Paraclete XP Money Meet 2008 brought a little surprise. Perris Fury scored the sole highscore in Round 7. It was the first time in this meet that Airspeed Odyssey did not win or tie the highest score.

It was not the first time that Perris Fury outscored Airspeed Odyssey. That had already happened at rounds one and seven of the Valentine's Meet 2007, with the original lineup and Chris Farina in the Center Inside position. The original Fury lineup had also scored higher than the US national team in rounds four and six of the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008 and in round nine of the World Challenge 2008.

It would still become a special day for this Perris Fury lineup with Thomas Hughes in the Center Inside position. Christy Frikken, Josh Hall and Uli Steuwe were now more familiar with Thomas Hughes' style and picked up the pace. Fury was ten points behind Airspeed and three points behind the Golden Knights after the six rounds of the first day (143 - 136 - 133), but that changed on Sunday.

It became a much tighter competition (93 - 92 - 91) on the second day and throughout the four remaining rounds. Airspeed may have slowed down a little bit after working out a 7-point lead on Saturday. Perris Fury may have gained confidence after keeping up with Airspeed in the tunnel competition.

Whatever the reasons were - Perris Fury had a great start on Sunday morning and ended up as the winner of the second day. In fact, Airspeed beat the Perris team only in the last round. Fury tied the highscore with Airspeed in Round 8 and repeated the upset again in Round 9.

All these numbers still come down to the same overall result: Airspeed Odyssey ends up on the top of the leaderboard. The Arizona team has surely learned what it takes to win any meet. The competition veterans Andy Delk, Craig Girard, Mark Kirkby and Eliana Rodriguez, now with Steve Nowak on camera, know exactly how to manage the road to victory meet by meet.

Airspeed Odyssey doesn not get nervous when the team does not win a round or struggles on a competition day. The team knows that all points are counted at the very end of the meet. And that's when Airspeed Odyssey has ended up on the very top of each leaderboard. The current lineup, with Mark Kirkby joining the team at the end of the 2006 season, has not been defeated ever since.

Airspeed Odyssey attended and won six meets in 2007 and five in 2008 so far. They have lost a few rounds here and there, and there were days when other teams were stronger. However, the Arizona team has always ended up on the very top in the end. The next meet will be the most important one in this lineup's career. The World Meet 2008 begins in 26 days...