posted May 4th, 2008 - The 2008 season has already brought many interesting scores of national teams to the leaderboards of the several indoor and outdoor events. The NSL News has covered the run-up to the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2008 in August in France with many stories, mostly of the Open Class situation.

Several national teams that compete in IPC's female 4-way category have posted scores at the same events, as well. It is almost impossible to compare most of the scores since teams have competed at different events, and the results also include the indoor meets. However, the first scores of the 2008 season at least indicate where the teams stand at this point in time.

Female national teams from five different countries have attended five different competitions this year so far. The United Kingdom is the reigning world champion in the female category. Airkix won the gold medals with a 19.0 average in Germany 2006.

Great Britain has a new national team, Bodyflight Storm (Hannah Betts, Claire Scott, Sarah Smith, Kate Stephens, Gary Wainwright on camera), which has already been covered by the NSL News several times. Only one team member, Claire Scott, is actually a defending world champion of 2006.

Bodyflight Storm has competed at two events this year so far. The indoor competition at the World Challenge 2008 in March brought a 22.6 average after ten rounds. Then Storm posted a 17.7 average after six rounds at the California Skydiving League season opener in April in Elsinore.

Both the indoor average in Bedford and the outdoor results in Elsinore indicate that Bodyflight Storm is the strongest female lineup in the world at the beginning of the world meet season.

France won the silver medals in Germany 2006 with a 17.8 average. The 2006 lineup consisted of Sandy Labattu, Cathy Gallet, Sophie Deremaux and Françoise Simons. Sophie Deremaux now trains and competes with Deep Blue and still has to qualify with her team to compete at this year's world meet.

Two French lineups compete for the slot as France's national team this year. Sophie Deremaux' team Deep Blue (Sophie Deremaux, Bérangère Duplouy, Françoise Simons-Hamouchi, Amélie Tirman), put the first scores out and posted a 22.1 average at the Aerokart indoor competition in February. The NSL News story on 26 February 2008 provided more information.

The second French lineup, White and See (Christele Askew, Julie Levy, Emanuelle Nicols, Isabelle Nore), attended the other indoor competition at the end of March, the World Challenge 2008. White and See finished the 10-round competition in Bedford with a 19.8 average and is obviously behind Deep Blue at this point in time.

Deep Blue's average at the indoor competition in February (22.1) was not far behind Bodyflight Storm's (22.6) in March. Both competitions were 10-round events. The competition draw in Bedford was probably slightly faster compared to the draw in Paris, France. The French teams have not posted any outdoor scores yet.

White and See could not keep up with Bodyflight Storm in Bedford. The second French team was racing with the Norwegian female lineup, Fortitudo, and won by three points (198 - 195).

French coach Julien Losantos, 4-way world champion of 2003 and silver medalist in Croatia 2004 and Germany 2006, was satisfied with his team's performance in Bedford and still plans to give Deep Blue a competition at the Coupe de France events in June and July, the qualifiers for the World Meet 2008.

Russia was tied in 3rd place with the US team Elsinore Select after five rounds and won the bronze medals in Germany 2006. No Russian female lineup has posted any scores this year so far. The new US national team, Fastrax Blue, wants to do better than the lineup in Germany. There is no doubt that Becky Broccato (Tail), Kelley Fredrickson (Point), Erin Murphy (Outside Center) and Brianne Thompson (Inside Center) are not planning to come back from France without a set of medals. Brianne Thompson was already the Center Inside for Elsinore Select in 2006.

Fastrax Blue has competed only at outdoor events so far, the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008 and the April meet of the Florida Skydiving League. The very fast first six rounds of the Shamrock Showdown brought a 20.0 average to the Fastrax Blue records. The competition draw in April was significantly slower, and the US team finished once again after six rounds and with a 15.5 average.

Fastrax Blue competed directly with Fortitudo and the German national team, Chicas, at the Shamrock Showdown 2008 and was 18 points ahead of Norway after six rounds (120 - 102). The US team has not met any of the UK or French teams at an indoor or outdoor competition yet.

Fortitudo (Ellen Burchardt, Lise Nansen, Trude Sviggum, Kristine Willadsen and Gudrun Rokne on camera) met the US and the German team in March in DeLand and two weeks later Bodyflight Storm and White and See at the World Challenge 2008. The Norwegian team completed nine rounds in DeLand and ended up with a 15.2 average. The 19.5 average in Bedford was not good enough to keep up with Bodyflight Storm, however, Fortitudo was very close to the French team White and See.

Norway was far from a medal position in Germany 2006, with a 12.6 average and tied in 7th place. Trude Sviggum is the only remaining member of the 2006 lineup. However, Norway has a successful history in the female 4-way competition: silver medals with a 14.4 average in 2001 and with a 16.2 average in 2003. Norway was not represented at all by a female lineup in Croatia 2004 and then ended up at the bottom of the field in 2006.

Fortitudo is now committed to bring back the successful Norwegian days in the female category. Three-time bronze medal winner in the Open class, Lise Nansen (formerly Aune), is guiding the team to a new performance level. Fortitudo will add new scores in June at the Paraclete XP Money Meet.

Germany was still ahead of Norway after the five rounds (13.2 - 12.6) on home turf in 2006. The new national team is Chicas (Dr. Petra Bärenfänger, Sylvia Maier, Susa Serra, Marion Thomas) after winning the qualification in 2007. The new Norwegian team passed the German weekend amateurs already at the Shamrock Showdown (80 - 75), even though the Chicas offered resistance in a few rounds. It is still unlikely that the German team, with limited resources, will be able to keep up with the Norwegian progression.

Questionmarks are still behind the Russian team for the World Meet 2008. The JetBats won silver medals at the FAI World Cup 2007 with a 15.0 average. The Ukrainian team Alfa-Fox posted a 13.8 average in Russia last year. Both teams will most likely represent their countries again in August in France.