posted Oct 16th, 2013 - The latest scores on the NSL leaderboard have arrived from Asia. China hosted this year's continental championship, which is called Asiana. Dubai's Formation Skydiving head coach and former Arizona Airspeed 4way and 8way world champion Craig Girard mentioned during the USPA Nationals 2013 that this event was coming up and that his Dubai Asaar Black lineup would compete in China.

Craig Girard now followed up with the scores, competition draw and additional information. He said that the competition jumps were made from the right-hand door of a Pilatus Porter, which had no step to be used for setting up the exit formations.

Most of the international events have planes with left-hand doors for the Formation Skydiving events, and switching to the other side has always been an extra challenge for teams. Craig Girard said that Dubai Asaar Black suffered two point deductions in Round 4 caused by video trouble after the exit.

Asiana 2013		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	7,16,E	17,12,H	C,O,G,19	9,L,D,13	5,11,F	6,3,A	M,21,18	1,20,J	Total	Avg
1	Dubai Asaar Black (AE)	18	16	19	17(-2)	18	18	17	18	141	17.6
2	China (CN)	17	14	21	21	16	16	17	16	138	17.3
3	Brazil CISM (BR)	10	13	11	15	14	11	13	13	100	12.5
4	Singapore (SG)	16	11	7	13	12	14	13	12	98	12.3
5	China HN (CN)	12	11	10	12	13	10	13	12	93	11.6
6	Oman (OM)	10	10	9	7	6	4	8	7	61	7.6
7	Brunei (BN)	6	8	8	5	2	6	6	6	47	5.9
8	Korea (KR)	0	0	1	2	0	4	1	2	10	1.3

Five of the eight teams in China are not new to the Sun Path Products NSL News audience. The teams from Singapore and Oman had competed at the Mondial Dubai 2012. China's second lineup from the Hunan province visited DeLand earlier this year for the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013.

The teams in the first two places also know each other well after competing with and against each other at the Mondial Dubai 2012. In fact, China and Dubai Asaar Black were right next to each other and just as close on the leaderboard last year, as they were last week.

Both teams were separated by three points (126 - 123) at the Mondial in December 2012 and by the same three points (141 - 138) now in China. Only the meet averages are significantly higher for both teams, and the new Asaar Black lineup posted the highest one of the only year that the team has been together so far.

Mondial Dubai 2012		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	5,12,E	6,D,B,K	O,8,7	N,13,18	10,21,M	19,H,11	C,G,1,A	20,9,15	16,F,P,Q	2,J,4	Total	Avg
16	Dubai Asaar Red (AE)	16	20	16	12	15	16	18	13	-	-	126	15.8
17	China (CN)	7	21	15	14	14	15	21	16	-	-	123	15.4

Dubai Assar	China

Dubai Assar Black and China completed only eight rounds at both events. The FAI/IPC rules for the Mondial eliminated all but the best ten teams after Round 8. The Asiana Championships were scheduled for only eight rounds, and Asaar Black completed the team's 5th competition this year.

It has been a busy year for Craig Girard and the Dubai Assar Black lineup, and it is not over yet, as the 4th Dubai Cup is still coming up. Craig Girard knows how important competition experience is for teams, and he and Eliana Rodriguez have been traveling all over the planet this year (Florida - Bedford - Banja Luka - Ottawa - China) with the Dubai Asaar delegation.

The new Asaar Black lineup has caught up and passed the scoring numbers of the previous Red lineup and maintained the UAE position slightly ahead of China's national team. Both teams may meet again in Dubai, and the Sun Path Products NSL News will once again follow the Dubai delegation, this time on their home turf.