posted Apr 15th, 2012 - The World Challenge 2012 is history now, while the record breaking leaderboard with its exciting numbers continue to catch the NSL News attention in many different ways.

This year's event was the first time that host Paul Mayer did not set up a Super Sequence in the AAA Class competition draw somewhere in the 10-round meet. It did not keep any teams away from Bodyflight Bedford, and it also did not even keep some of the teams from posting even higher meet averages compared to the World Challenge 2011.

Three of the TOP 10 teams managed to score higher than last year, and the most significant improvement was shown by Thunder going from 22.4 in 2011 to 24.1 this month. NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Aerodyne Aerokart were not much impressed by the slower draw, as well, and matched last year's results (Hayabusa 30.5 - 30.4 and France 29.0 - 29.1) almost exactly.

World Challenge 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 Open Class	D,Q,9,10	17,P,11	2,21,7	14,J,O,M	A,L,18,16	N,H,20,G	C,E,19,22	1,8,4	K,6,3	12,F,5	Total	Avg
2	Aerodyne Aerokart	31	31	25	37	28	33	26	23	27	30	291	29.1
5	Aerokart Maubeuge	29	27	23	34	19	26	22	19	23	25	247	24.7

The third TOP 10 team that scored higher than last year was the second half of the French 8way team, Aerokart Maubeuge (24.3 - 24.7) who also finished better than ever before, tied with SDC Rhythm XP in 5th place.

The French 8way experts love to do 4way and have actually trained for this event, as 8way team captain and 3-time world champion (2006, 2008, 2010) Clement Martin Saint Leon explained. He said that his 4way team has been training 4way in the windtunnel to be current and in good shape for the 8way team. They will even add approx. 50 jumps of outdoor training before the 8way training begins in May. This way, the second half of the 8way team will be familiar with the outdoor environment and ready to launch the 8way training on a high performance level.

The French performance of those two national 4way lineups at the World Challenge 2012 reminded the NSL News on the Golden Knights plans, which were quite similar, as Brian "BK" Krause had explained to the NSL News during the Paraclete XP Indoor Championships 2012. He was working on improving the 4way skills of his second half, the Black lineup, who also scored higher than ever before at the indoor competition in February.

Paraclete XP Indoor 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 Open Class	C,20,13	B,18,O,8	K,A,16,Q	H,F,J,4	2,11,10	M,E,21,22	P,L,3,12	14,6,D	G,1,19	N,5,9	Total	Avg
3	Golden Knights Gold	20	27	32	36	20	27	25	25	27	34	273	27.3
5	Golden Knights Black	22	23	27	28	18	23	21	23	19	26	230	23.0

France combined for a 26.9 average (29.1 - 24.7) at the World Challenge, which had the slightly slower competition draw compared to the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship, as the results by Arizona Airspeed (29.0 - 29.0) and SDC Rhythm XP (25.8 - 24.7) indicate. The Golden Knights finished with a combined 25.2 average (27.3 - 23.0) in February in Raeford.

The joined effort by the two French lineups still seems to show an advantage over the Golden Knights when it comes to 4way competition and speed. The question is how the 4way skills will translate into 8way competition. Both teams are convinced that great 4way skills will support the 8way performance significantly.

One of the French 8way team members also experiments with additional and very different skills. Thomas Perrin Gachadoat was selected for the French 8way team in 2009 and won his first gold medal in Menzelinsk 2010. His team captain and team mate Clement Martin Saint Leon told the NSL News that Thomas Perrin Gachadoat also competed in Freeflying at the World Challenge 2012. However, his Freeflying skills are not officially a part of the French 8way training plan...