posted Oct 7th, 2009 - Three Scandinavian teams competed for this year's internal top spot at the FAI World Cup 2009, Norway's national 4-way team Nexus, Evolution from Sweden and the Pro Team from Finland.

The NSL News had mentioned the unofficial "Scandinavian Championship" already a few times during the live coverage from Prostejov, Czech Republic. Norway had dominated the 4-way competition in Scandinavia for a long time, first with the DeLand Norgies and then with Arcteryx.

Denmark had the best Scandinavian 4-way team before the Norwegian years. The world class team Touche won two sets of bronze medals at the world meets in 1993 and 1995. Finland had a few strong years in the early 80s and a 4th place finish at the world meet in 1993.

This year changed the Scandinavia situation once again, and Finland is on the very top for the first time. The Pro Team made it through all cuts and into the final round of the European Championship at the World Cup 2009 and finished with a 15.6 average in 10th place.

This year's three Scandinavian contenders scored close to each other at the earlier meets of the 2009 season, which promised a good Scandinavian race within the competition of the World Cup. Eventually, only Nexus kept within striking distance of the Pro Team, while Evolution performed below expectations in Prostejov. The devastating 9-pointer in Round 5 was the Swedish low of the meet.

The Pro Team ended up six point ahead of Nexus after nine rounds. Evolution did not make the first cut and was done after eight rounds. The Pro Team added a nice 20-pointer in Round 10 to the team account, which can also be reviewed on the new NSL-TV video.

The unofficial Scandinavian Championship 2009 at the World Cup took place without a team from Denmark. The current national team Voluntas would have been able to challenge the Pro Team quite seriously, as the previous Voluntas scores of the 2009 season (14.8 - 15.6 - 16.8) clearly show.

Voluntas decided to finish the 2009 season at the 2009 USPA National Skydiving Championships, after a training camp in the USA right before the competition.

The national team of Denmark will not be able to compete directly with the other Scandinavian teams next week. However, the scores at the USPA Nationals will indicate where Voluntas might have ended up at the World Cup and the Scandinavian rankings of 2009. The NSL News will follow up soon with Voluntas scores from Texas.