posted Apr 3rd, 2009 - Bodyflight Bedford's tunnel engine has now been running for over 24 hours without any break, and Paul Meyer said that it will continue like that until midnight. There are still many teams that use the last chance to get familiar with the 16-footer in Bedford.

France has once again a large delegation with different five 4-way teams. The manager of the French national teams in Formation Skydiving competition, former 4-way world champion Jerome David, has also traveled to Bedford. He joined the national 4-way and 8-way coaches, Marin Ferre and Erwan Pouliquen, for a live interview with the NSL News. The video of this interview will be posted later.

The NSL-TV camera was first following the French teams when they entered the flying chamber. Four different lineups shared the tunnel hour in the afternoon, including France Maubeuge, the national team in the Open Class, and Aerokart Deep Blue, the national team in the female category.

Aerokart Pamiers, with reigning 8-way world champions Clement Martin-Saint-Leon and Emmanuel Sarrazin, was in the tunnel during this session, as well. Their 8-way team mate and coach Erwan Pouliquen, also a former 4-way world champion, had actually not planned to compete in the tunnel this weekend. He was called to 4-way duty when the Aerokart Pamiers member Julien Olek injured himself recently.

Arnaud Mille is now the only former B-Team member in this lineup. He is a new member of the French 8-way lineup that was selected this year. Julien Olek will most likely miss the first 8-way training camp in June, and 8-way veteran Emmanuel "Manu" Sarrazin will fill the slot.

The video of the French tunnel session can be viewed by clicking here.

It is hard to believe that the World Challenge 2009 is the first tunnel competition ever for the French national 4-way team in the Open Class. France Maubeuge has mixed feelings about the indoor competition.

The team wants to get the competition experience and feel the pressure from the many top teams.

At the same time, France Maubeuge doesn't really want to change the outdoor style too much. Flying in the windtunnel is very different compared to an outdoor competition, and the French national 4-way team looks almost too clean to be competitive with tunnel veterans like Airspeed, Hayabusa and XL. Tomorrow's scores will show how well prepared for tunnel competition the 4-way silver medalist of 2008 is.

Hayabusa training session is now on NSL-TV

The new leaderboard for the scores of the World Challenge 2009 has been set up and will be filled with the magic numbers beginning tomorrow morning.

36 is the final numbers for the teams in the AAA Class competition. Ten additional teams in the AA Class make it a 45-team field, which is a new record participation, even though it is four teams short of the 50-team goal.

The training video of Hayabusa Defence has now been uploaded and can be viewed by clicking here. Coach Joey Jones was with the Belgian national team and bronze medalist of 2008 in the flying chamber.

Hayabusa followed a similar training concept that Airspeed applied yesterday. The focus was mainly on the entry into the tunnel. Hayabusa shared the tunnel time with a 4-way from Denmark, coached by Perris Fury member Christy Frikken in the Point slot. Kate Cooper is in this lineup that will not compete in Bedford.

The purpose of the tunnel training is purely to improve the individual and group skills. However, there are rumors of future Danish 8-way plans, including the founder of Square 1 and popular big-way organizer...

The Brian Johnson story of the World Challenge 2009 is connected to UK team Satori's destiny this year. The NSL News reported earlier that former XL member Lee Love would take the open Center Inside position for Satori when Liz Matthews had to step back due to her pregnancy.

Satori with Lee Love began with the training until the new member had to step back due to his job situation. The three remaining Satoris, Aaron Faith (Tail), Julia Foxwell (Center Outside) and Katie Woods (Point), did not give up despite the ongoing setbacks.

The impressive motivation and persistance of this 3-way has been contagious, and another former XL member finally agreed to fill the Center Inside slot in 2009 and replace Lee Love. John McIver is the new Satori member.

However, John McIver is competing with XL at the World Challenge 2009 and is not available in Bedford this weekend. There was a great solution for Satori though. Brian Johnson, who helped XL to challenge and threaten Airspeed in 2007 and 2008 in Bedford, could help out since John McIver took his XL slot for the first reunion of the 2003 lineup.

Satori is once again in great shape, and the popular UK team will surely put some great scores on this year's World Challenge leaderboard. The 2009 lineup will also be the top contender for the UK Nationals 2009 if nothing changes.

The video of the French training sessions will be next. The NSL News has interviews with the French coaches and Joey Jones on today's agenda, as well. Stay tuned.