posted Jan 20th, 2015 - There are still a few other events on the new competition schedule for the 2015 season before the "Bedford Paraclete Showdown" will bring most of the world's top performers and many other teams together in 4-way competition.

The next indoor meet is scheduled for this weekend in Spain. The Wind Games will be held for the second time after the inaugural event in January 2014.

The field has grown from a total of nine teams in 4-way Open and 4-way Women last year to 16 teams this weekend. It is a strong field, and it includes the first direct confrontation between NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Arizona Airspeed with their new lineups. The scores at the Wind Games will set the the starting point of the race for gold medals at the World Meet 2016 in Ottawa.

Wind Games 2014		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	C,20,17	16,A,D,7	J,P,13,L	N,21,22	M,8,15	K,3,6	F,4,1	B,G,H,O,10	5,18,9	Q,2,12	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	29	36	33	27	31	30	29	41	32	26	314	31.4
2	Arizona Airspeed (US)	32	35	30	27	32	26	32	38	32	21	305	30.5
3	Thunder ISR (BE)	26	26	27	22	24	23	27	31	25	23	254	25.4
1	Aerodyne French Girls (FR)	21	26	27	20	24	21	25	29	24	20	237	23.7
4	EXL3Maubeuge (INT)	22	25	27	18	22	22	23	28	23	21	231	23.1
5	FlyZone Espoirs Saumur (FR)	20	24	23	19	18	19	21	25	21	19	209	20.9
2	Kaizen (UK)	18	24	23	15	21	21	22	27	18	19	208	20.8
3	EmpuriaGatas BBD (ESP)	17	17	18	17	17	17	19	20	16	15	173	17.3
6	Monaco Vitalsea (MC)	13	16	18	14	15	13	15	19	10	17	150	15.0

Videos: NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Arizona Airspeed at the Wind Games 2014

It's a big meet for the three Belgian 4-way world champions (Dennis Praet, Andy Grauwels, David Grauwels) and new member Jeroen Nollet, while world champion videographer Danny Jacobs will not be needed for the indoor competition.

NMP-PCH Hayabusa has been the undefeated unofficial indoor 4-way world champion for four years before they also won the outdoor gold medals last year. The French national team of 2010 (Jeremie Rollett, Julien Degen, Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier) and XL (Thomas Hughes, Pete Allum, Steve Hamilton, Brian Johnson) were the last teams finishing ahead of the Belgians at the World Challenge 2010. Hayabusa has won each indoor competition ever since.

It will be a challenge for the reigning world champions to fend off the new Airspeed lineup and maintain the clean indoor record. Hayabusa has been on a holiday break since the 5th DIPC 2014, where they finished in 2nd place behind Evolution.

World Challenge 2010		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	5,4,12	J,M,E,D,L	20,17,8	15,18,7	22,A,F,K	21,C,G,6	9,19,16	B,13,14	H,P,O,3	N,2,10	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart (FR)	22	63	23	26	31	28	29	28	32	23	305	30.5
2	XL	21	57	24	25	35	29	28	25	37	23	304	30.4
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	22	57	23	25	36	28	28	26	34	22	301	30.1
4	Perris Fury (US)	21	66	23	24	33	27	26	26	33	19	298	29.8
5	Arizona Airspeed (US)	23	55	23	25	30	29	26	27	36	22	296	29.6
6	Aerokart PCs (FR)	20	62	22	24	30	25	27	26	36	22	294	29.4

Center Outside Andy Grauwels told the Sun Path Products NSL News that his team just started with indoor training last week. He said that switching back to prepare for a tunnel competition always requires some targeted training:

"After winning all attended indoor meets in the last four years we know how different they are from skydiving competitions. In overall it's much faster, and if you make a mistake or go too fast you have the risk of losing lots of points."

He said that the entry into the flying chamber also creates different technical possibilities. Coach Gary Smith has been working with Hayabusa, and Andy Grauwels said that his team is very happy with the progress of the new lineup, especially considering the short amount of training time so far: "I would say we are on the right track!" Round 1 is scheduled for Friday, January 23rd at 10:30 AM.