posted Jan 26th, 2010 - The field of teams for the World Challenge 2010 is growing rapidly, as it was expected to happen. In fact, the number of teams that are already registered for the event is higher than ever before at this point in time.

The NSL News story on 1 January 2010 had provided the last update with the teams that were the first ones to sign up for this year's tunnel meet at Bodyflight Bedford. The number has almost doubled since then, and the competition is still over two months away.

Many teams have not even thought of taking care of the registration process by now, even though they have the World Challenge 2010 already in their calendars. The names of the already registered teams are now listed on the event page, with the exception of Arizona Airspeed and the French national team who have not completed their registration yet.

The new names on the list add new excitement to the buildup of the event. There was no doubt that the UK teams Satori and Team Bodyflight would compete on their home turf, and both teams have already found the attention of the NSL News.

Satori is UK's national 4-way team in the Open Class after winning the UK Nationals 2009. It has been a few years in the United Kingdom that it was not an all-female lineup that won the national championship.

Airkix won in 2006, then Bodyflight Storm in 2007 and 2008 before Satori took over with two boys and two girls in the lineup last year (Aaron Faith, Julia Foxwell, John McIver, Katie Woods).

Team Bodyflight, UK's female lineup for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010, was introduced by the NSL News on 9 December 2009 (Archives > 2009 > News > Search for "Team Bodyflight"). Sarah Smith-Cannon, Amanda Kemp, Tarnya Hollis and Liz Matthews will compete in Russia, Claire "Sparky" Scott is the team's alternate, and Alan Thompson will be filming the team.

Liz Matthews is a former Satori member and will now travel to Russia together with her former team mates in the UK delegation - but with a different team. Amanda Kemp was in the Airkix lineup that won the UK Nationals 2006, together with Satori member Julia Foxwell and alternate Claire "Sparky" Scott.

Airkix then split up into two different female lineups, Team Elan (Emma Beyer, Julia Foxwell, Tarnya Hollis, Amanda Kemp) and Bodyflight Storm (Hannah Betts, Claire Scott, Sarah Smith, Kate Stephens). Storm won at the UK Nationals 2007, then at the World Meet 2008 and the UK Nationals 2008.

Team Elan disbanded, and Julia Foxwell joined Satori, together with Aaron Faith and Liz Matthews who had competed together for Aardvark Zulu, bronze medalist of 2007. Katie Woods was the 4th member. Satori ended up in 2nd place behind Bodyflight Storm.

The domination of all-female lineups in the UK was over when Satori eventually won the UK Nationals 2009 with former XL member John McIver in the lineup and a convincing 20.7 average. However, the same competition was already the beginning of the new female lineup that would turn out to become the new British national team in the female category.

Pussy Galore competed at the World Challenge 2009 and then at the UK Nationals 2009 where Claire "Sparky" Scott, Hannah Betts, Tarnya Hollis and Amanda Kemp finished in 2nd place with a 16.8 average. Team Bodyflight of 2010 now has Liz Matthews in the lineup, and Claire "Sparky" Scott is the alternate for the team.

The World Challenge 2010 will be the first competition this year where the two British national teams of 2010 will compete together and also directly against each other in the same category.

It will be even more interesting to see how both UK teams of 2010 will keep up with the medal contenders in both categories.

Satori will be training hard this year with John McIver to prepare for the World Meet in Russia. The top contenders in the Open Class will all be competing in Bedford at the same time, and Satori will have the opportunity to check out how close the team is to the very top level in the world.

It is a similar situation for Team Bodyflight in the female category. The World Challenge 2010 will bring at least the French national team, Aerokart Deep Blue Maubeuge, bronze medalist of 2008 and World Cup winner of 2009, to Bedford. The NSL News had no information whether the US team Spaceland Blue will also make the trip to Bedford or not.

However, the German World Cup bronze medalist Incognito Leutkirch was planning to compete at the World Challenge 2009, and the new Norwegian Polaris lineup has already signed up. There will be an exciting competition between the all-female lineups.

Sarah Smith-Cannon is the only defending 4-way world champion of 2008 in the Team Bodyflight lineup, besides alternate Claire Scott, while the French team has trained and competed with the same lineup ever since. The indoor competition will show how close these two teams are, half a year before the first round in Russia.