posted Apr 12th, 2009 - One of the interesting races within the competition took place between two all-female lineups, Pussy Galore and Aerokart Deep Blue.

Both teams made it to the Top 12 at the World Challenge 2009, which brings each round to the NSL-TV audience.

Aerokart Deep Blue is the French national 4-way team in IPC's female category, bronze medalist at last year's World Championship of Formation Skydiving. The NSL News has covered the French team already quite a few times this year, as Deep Blue also competed at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2009.

Pussy Galore is a lineup of current and former British 4-way world champions in IPC's female category who joined forces to compete in Bedford this year. Two of the team members, Claire "Sparky" Scott and Hannah Betts, won the gold medals at last year's World Meet in France.

Claire Scott and Amanda Kemp are actually responsible for the team name, which originates after one of the characters in the James Bond movie "Goldfinger". Claire Scott explained that they were on an all-female pickup team back in 1996 and called themselves Pussy Galore:

"This is when we both had under 200 jumps and still managed to get a bronze medal. We thought it was quite fun to go back to our roots."

Claire Scott and Amanda Kemp ended up again in the same team in 2005 and 2006 and won the gold medals with Airkix at the World Meet 2006 in Germany. Claire Scott continued with Bodyflight Storm, while Amanda Kemp trained and competed with Team Elan. Storm won the UK Nationals 2007 and qualified as the UK national team for the World Meet 2008. Team Elan discontinued.

Tarnya Hollis trained and competed together with Amanda Kemp for Team Elan. She had taken Claire Scott's slot when Airkix discontinued, and Bodyflight Storm and Team Elan formed two new lineups. Pussy Galore was thus a reunion and combination of Airkix, Team Elan and Bodyflight Storm members.

It was no surprise that this lineup would be very competitive and perform on the same scoring level as the reigning 4-way world champions did last year. Bodyflight Storm had finished with a 22.6 average at the World Challenge 2008, and Pussy Galore had a 22.9 average on the scoreboard after this year's event.

Bodyflight Storm had not announced any new plans for the future so far, after winning the gold medals last year in France. This has changed in the meantime, and there is a new Storm lineup for the 2009 season.

Sarah Smith, original Storm member and female 4-way world champion of 2008, informed the NSL News that the new lineup already completed the first training camp in Perris, California, before the World Challenge 2009. She said that the new lineup made 134 training jumps from the Twinotter:

"It was great to be jumping the Otter again after all the Porter training last year."

She added that her new lineup is planning to make 300 jumps this year, and then possibly 300 more in 2010. She also said that last year's team members still continue to be a part of the Bodyflight Storm project with coaching and PR positions:

"Plan is to have some members competing and some coaching to keep the name Storm going in order to pay back our sponsors. We also want to pass on the 4-way information we have to other up and coming skydivers."

The new lineup consists of Sarah Smith (Center Outside), Julie Woodrow (Center Inside), Laura McLelland (Tail) and Lynne Murray (Point). Adele Marshall is flying the camera slot for Bodyflight Storm 2009.

Sarah Smith is obviously the only remaining Bodyflight Storm world and UK champion of 2008. However, the three new members are more than familiar with 4- way competition.

Laura McLelland and Lynne Murray trained and competed with UK's national 4-way team in the Open Class, Fusion, in 2007 and 2008. Fusion represented the United Kingdom at the World Cup 2007 in Russia and the World Meet 2008 in France. The NSL News audience may remember that Fusion was heavily involved in the Fun Flag drama of the World Meet in Maubeuge. Laura McLelland still competed with Fusion at the World Challenge 2009.

Only Julie Woodrow is not as current in 4-way competition as her teammates. However, she is the oldest of age in the Storm lineup and has tons of skydiving and competition experience. At the same time, she is very eager to get to the top of the world, as she expresses clearly on the team's website:

"Personally, I want to to perform my best on Storm to retain the Womens 4-way World Championship title."

Bodyflight Storm will have a very hard time to beat Satori this year and retain the title of the UK 4-way champion in the Open Class, as Satori was even far ahead of Pussy Galore with a 24.1 average at the World Challenge 2009. However, main goal is to qualify as the national team in the female category and defend the gold medals at the World Meet in Russia 2010. The NSL News has no information of another female lineup in the United Kingdom that could stop the new Bodyflight Storm lineup this year.

One of the opponents in 2010, Aerokart Deep Blue, competed in Bedford and looks already much stronger compared to the World Meet 2008. Pussy Galore won the rematch by nine points. However, the French team is also looking at the performance next year and seems to be on track. And then there is the US team that has just begun with its training...