posted Apr 12th, 2013 - An international 4way competition with a leaderboard for the female category only has a realistic value with teams from France, at least since the country's skydiving federation adopted the event and attended a World Championship of Formation Skydiving for the first time in 2003. The French progression in 4way Women began with a last place (5th) at the World Meet 2003 on home turf in Gap.

A year later, France was in 2nd place of ten teams in Croatia and defended the silver medals in Germany 2006 in a 12-team field. Then the lineup changed, and Aerokart Deep Blue competed for the first time at the World Meet 2008 in Maubeuge, France. It was "only" a 3rd place for the original lineup at their first world meet, which turned into gold medals two years later in Menzelinsk, Russia.

Sophie Deremaux competed for France at each world meet since 2003 and stepped back after winning her second gold medal in Dubai 2012, together with her 2010 team mate Amelie Tirman. Now the original Deep Blue lineup of 2008 came back to attend two indoor competitions this year, first the Aerokart Indoor Championship 2013 in February and now the World Challenge 2013.

Aerokart Deep Blue	Satori Chix

Sophie Deremaux, Berangere Duplouy, Francoise Simons-Hamouchiand Amelie Tirman needed some time to warm up before taking control of the female leaderboard. Deep Blue had trouble with the air speed at the official training session on Thursday evening and had to use the first rounds to get familiar with the air flow and get in synch.

This gave Satori Chix the opportunity to keep up with the French former and reigning world champions of 2010 and 2012 on Friday. Round 5 was already the end of the warmup rounds, and Deep Blue began to move away from Satori Chix, round by round for a 14-point difference after ten rounds.

Only Gavroches Maubeuge and Thunder had outscored Deep Blue at Aerokart in February and did this again in Bedford. The event in Paris did not have a separate leaderboard for the female 4way category.

World Challenge 2013		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	O,E,J,K,3	M,Q,A,14	4,6,16	8,18,N	H,19,12	2,7,13	11,C,P,9	15,D,10	L,F,17,G	20,1,22	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	40	37	25	28	28	25	37	25	42	20	307	30.7
2	Evolution (CA)	39	36	24	23	21	22	33	24	37	21	280	28.0
3	Gavroches Maubeuge (FR)	34	35	23	22	24	22	33	24	34	19	270	27.0
4	Paraclete XP4 (US)	34	34	23	22	22	23	31	22	38	20	269	26.9
5	XL	30	35	22	23	23	23	29	24	37	19	265	26.5
6	SportLoto (RU)	35	28	19	23	24	21	30	23	34	20	257	25.7
7	Thunder (BE)	33	32	21	23	23	22	29	21	31	19	254	25.4
8	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	33	33	19	19	22	21	23	22	36	18	246	24.6
9	Aerokart Deep Blue (FR)	30	30	18	17(-1)	22	19	28	22	33	17	236	23.6
10	Dubai Asaar Black (AE)	21	30	19	20	20	21	26	20	30	17	224	22.4
11	a.team4way (RU)	30	27	18	20	18	18	26	19	30	16	222	22.2
11	Satori Chix (INT)	29	29(-1)	17	18	20	18	26	19	29	17	222	22.2

Deep Blue is used to keep an eye on the open class leaderboard anyway. There was not enough strong competition in the female category when the French team won the world meet in 2010. The situation was similar at the World Challenge 2013 after the first half of the meet was over. Deep Blue increased the lead in 4way Women and was in the Top 10 on the open class leaderboard.

Satori Chix would miss the Top 10 together with a.team4way due to Aerokart Deep Blue's 9th place with a 23.6 average. The Russian team had a female 4way competitor in the lineup too, Katya Kharitonova. JaNette Lefkowitz, SDC Rhythm XP's Center Outside, placed right before Aerokart Deep Blue. Katie Woods was the highest scoring female competitor with Evolution and a 28.0 average.

Only one female competitor has ever scored higher. Eliana Rodriguez did it three times (28.3 - 28.8 - 29.6) between 2008 and 2010, with some help of the Super Sequences. The boys are still dominating the open class leaderboard though, with seven all-male lineups in the Top 10.