posted Sep 7th, 2005 - The question whether there would be a serious 8-way competition at the USPA Nationals in Perris or not has already been answered, and the answer came directly from the Golden Knights. The scores and videos of the first four rounds show very clearly that it will not be a walk in the park for Airspeed.

In fact, the competition between the two top contenders is much closer than anybody expected. Both teams are moving on exactly the same pace. Both teams tied their scores in round one, and it looked as if Airspeed had decided to be on the very safe side. The Army team was able to keep up with the pace.

Airspeed picked up the pace a little bit in round two and delivered a flawless performance with a score of 23 points and took a 2-point lead. It was easy to assume that this would be enough to shake off the Golden Knights in the following rounds, as well. It did not happen.

The Golden Knights came right back in round three and posted the highscore for the fast sequence with only Random Formations. Both teams were far away from the standing world record of 31 points, scored by several of the Golden Knights on site at the world meet in Turkey 1997. The crucial 8-way communication makes it very challenging to score on the highest level in a sequence with only Random Formations.

The Airspeed lead was down to one point, both teams were once going the same pace in round four and completed 22 points in time. The Golden Knights knew already that they had given up one point due to an incomplete Compressed Accordeon when they walked back to the packing area. The mistake was too obvious. The Airspeed lead is back up to two points after four rounds. However, there is no doubt at this point that Airspeed will have some work for the rest of the competition. Stay tuned, the judges are working on round five.