posted Jun 12th, 2011 - It came as it had to be expected. Sweden's national team Bardagi had to accept the 3rd place position in the AAA Class overall rankings, and Arizona Airspeed has no problem so far beating the 20-point level in each round. In fact, there is a very good chance that Airspeed will score only 21 points and higher.

Even the slowest sequence of the meet in Round 2 (13-20-Q) turned out to be a 21-pointer for Airspeed. This weekend's videos of the Swedish national team Bardagi include Round 2, which brought together the odd combination of Block 13 and Block 20. The latest dive pool change allowed this combination to be possible.

The new Airspeed lineup was the first team in the history of the sport that posted only 21-pointers and higher at the Valentine's Meet 2011. This weekend's Round 8 (22-E-12) will be the last serious test and determine whether Airspeed can do it again or not.

SDC Rhythm XP cannot even stay close to Airspeed, and the final leaderboard will show if the distance between the two teams has increased. However, it is a fact that Airspeed is below the average at the Shamrock Showdown 2011 after six rounds (24.5 - 24.9) while Rhythm is beating the Shamrock average (20.3 - 19.7) so far.

The other US medal contenders will carefully watch the leaderboard of the Midway Battle and get an idea of what to expect at the USPA Nationals this year.

There are many other observers all across the skydiving world, including French national coach Jeremie Rollett. His teams have currently been training in Maubeuge. He reported that the Deep Blue Defenders are back in full training swing after Perrine Sanchez' recent injury. She had twisted her ankle playing competitive volleyball and needed a break to recover.

Katie Woods, observer in DeLand, was still pleased with her teams after five rounds. The Sunday weather in the United Kingdom did not allow the completion of all six rounds. She had filmed the Cookie Monsters during a training camp with coach Gary Smith in DeLand. She also explained the 0-pointer for her brother's team Gnomad in Round 1. The team used a videographer of the camera pool, and the camera did not function at the meet opener. Clouds were responsible for more point deductions in Round 2 and Round 4, and an exit funnel kept it down in Round 5.

June 11th, 2011			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		18,A,3	13,20,Q	11,M,D,2	5,G,21	K,O,1,10	17,P,C,14	Total	Avg
1	USA Arizona Airspeed	News	24	21	27	24	23	28	147	24.5
2	SDC Rhythm XP	News	20	18	21	22	18	23	122	20.3
3	Sweden Bardagi	INT	15	11	18	16	15	17	92	15.3
4	SDC Furies XP	News	13	11	17	14	9	16	80	13.3
5	UK Cookie Monsters	INT	11	9	13	10	11	-	54	10.8
6	Sweden CADO	INT	10	10	10	9	10	11	60	10.0
7	Sweden Fire	INT	9	6	11	7	9	9	51	8.5
8	UK Slot Machines	INT	6	5	7	5	9	-	32	6.4

The SDC Furies XP won the international competition in the female category. The Swedish team Fire is a brandnew lineup. Asah Helenius was a member of the Swedish team that competed at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 and has three new team mates.

The Furies are also scoring higher at the Midway Battle compared to the Shamrock Showdown (13.3 - 12.6) so far. All three teams at Skydive Chicago this weekend had launched their 2011 outdoor season in March in DeLand, which offers a good opportunity to evaluate the progression.

The situation is similar for two of the three Swedish teams that competed this weekend. Bardagi and CADO were both at the International Bunny Meet. The competition draw in DeLand in April was significantly faster, and both teams scored far below their DeLand averages. The combination of both draws and scores probably provides a realistic milestone of the 2011 season.