posted Jan 24th, 2008 - The number of teams that will participate at the World Challenge 2008 keeps growing. The field of AAA and AA Class teams is an interesting combination of teams that already have a history on the NSL website and new teams that will post their scores for the first time.

Most of the teams already have a team page with either a photo of the line-up or the names, and the links to the team pages have been set. The World Challenge 2007 attracted a total of 19 teams to the event at Bodyflight Bedford. This year, there are already 26 teams preparing their trip to the windtunnel in the United Kingdom. Bodyflight owner Paul Meyer says that he will not be surprised if there will be more than 30 teams competing in Bedford at the end of March.

The World Challenge 2008 surely lives up to its name. It is an international field with teams from 11 different nations so far: Austria (1), Belgium (1), Finland (1), France (2), Italy (2), Norway (3), Russia (3), Slovenia (1), South Africa (1), United Kingdom (7), USA (4).

The national teams in the open class from Belgium (Hayabusa Defence), Norway (Arcteryx), United Kingdom (Fusion), USA (Airspeed Odyssey) and in IPC's female category from Norway (Fortitudo), United Kingdom (Bodyflight Storm) will have their first direct competition with each other on the way to the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in France in August. Some of the teams will already have competed at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008, as well.

Other teams may still become their country's national teams for the World Meet this year. The qualification status in Austria, Finland, France, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and South Africa is unknown for the NSL News at the moment.

Italy's situation has already been covered by the NSL News in previous stories. The last update was posted on 10 January 2008. EX3Mix and Vertigo Eutelia both competed at the World Challenge 2007 and have signed up for this year's event, as well. They finished in 3rd and 4th place at the Italian Nationals 2007. EX3Mix, with members of the Italian 8-way, was only eight points behind the winning team with a 16.4 average. The Italian association does not allow members of the 8-way team to represent Italy in 4-way, as well. Only Vertigo Eutelia, Eutelia Spin Team (the Italian champion of 2007) and the 3rd place team Felix Poseidon are eligible to be sanctioned as Italy's national 4-way team this year.

France has already determined the national line-ups for its 4-way open class team and for the 8-way competition.

However, the slot in IPC's female category is still open, as the NSL News reported on 17 October 2007 (Archives > 2007 > News). Two French line-ups are in contention for the slot as the national team.

Sandy Labattu, Cathy Gallet, Sophie Deremaux and Françoise Simons won the gold medals at the FAI World Cup 2007 for France. However, the team disbanded, and national coach Jerome David decided to let two new line-ups compete for the slot as the national team in 2008.

White and Sea, with Christèle Askew, Emmanuelle Nicols, Julie Levie, Isabelle Seel and Thierry Simonnet on camera, is one of these two female line-ups. The World Challenge 2008 will be the first serious test for the team before the direct confrontation with Deep Blue will follow later at the meets of the French Cup series.

The Pro Team from Finland has been trying to catch up with the dominating Tigers last year after improving the scoring average significantly between 2006 and 2007. The World Challenge 2008 will show how seriously the Pro Team will be able to challenge the Tigers this year.

The situation for the Russian world-class teams might be very complicated in 2008. The qualification for the World Championship of Formation Skydiving is probably the Russian Nationals 2008, which will be held not too long before the World Meet in France begins. The qualified Russian national team might not have a lot of time to switch from the traditional left-hand door exit in Russia to the right-hand door of the Pilatus Porter in France.

Three Russian teams will compete at the World Challenge 2008. Kactus Hunter attended the World Challenge 2007 and finished with a 16.6 average. Skylight Barkli had a world-class line-up at the Malevsky Cup 2005 but did not compete in 2006 or 2007. The 2008 line-up is unknown.

Ocean 5 is another Russian combination of top competitors that joined forces last year. Viktor Gorbunkov, Dmitry Kovalev, Dmitry Samokhval and Anatoly Uzun will show in Bedford what they have to offer for this year's Russian 4-way race to France. The NSL News will continue to introduce more teams during the countdown to the World Challenge 2008.