posted Jun 4th, 2012 - The first Coupe de France event this year in Pamiers also included VFS 4way competition. The NSL News has given this category attention a few times this year, beginning at the Paraclete XP Indoor Skydiving Championships 2011. The story on 21 February 2012 followed up with a French experience at the same event.

The French national VFS 4way lineup Team4speed XP, reigning world champions, came back to the USA for a training camp during the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012, and the NSL News met with the team members and coach Philippe Schorno for an update, which was posted on 25 April 2012.

Team4speed now attended the first outdoor competition at the May meet of the Coupe de France 2012, and the NSL News received an update that included a few meet videos and photos. Coach Philippe Schorno provided additional information of the competition.

Coupe de France 2012 - May		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	G,17,F,A	9,8,E	B,1,D,16	10,L,C,3	7,13,H	6,4,12	15,2,11	N,L,14,5	Total	Avg
1	Team4speed XP	21	32	16	16	25	22	20	20	172	21.5
2	Fullpatate BG512	15	26	13	13	21	17	13	16	134	16.8
3	Transfert Pamiers	0	1	4	0	6	1	5	3	20	2.5

Team4speed had to shorten two scheduled training camps before the first outdoor competition due to not very promising weather forecasts. Two other VFS 4way teams showed up in Pamiers, together with a total of 29 teams in the traditional 4way competition.

Philippe Schorno said that Fullpatate BG512 is well known in the VFS 4way community, and the other recently recruited new VFS team consists of young and promising competitors.

The competition draw take place the night before the start of the meet in a relaxed atmosphere. Philippe Schorno evaluated the eight sequences as a draw that would generate average results.

He said that the first and second jump went very well for the two experienced teams, while the youngsters had to find out the difficulties of the discipline under the pressure of competition.

The Team4speed coach then added that his team's performance was less fluid in both following jumps: "The team members committed some mistakes which were immediately penalized by the judges." He said that the improved knowledge of the French judges is now well applied and that the judges are "very attentive to the slightest error".

Team4speed executed the last four rounds of the competition without any flaws and finished with a reasonable meet average at the season opener. Fullpatate almost posted a 17-point average, which was fully acceptable for the team, Philippe Schorno reported. He also expects the young and new VFS 4way team to be much stronger at the French Nationals 2012 in August: "They have the energy to progress quickly and the envy to challenge the top level teams soon..."