posted Mar 4th, 2017 - The latest update of the power rankings for the World Challenge 2017 shows that the field of AAA Class teams had a serious boost since the previous update on 22 February 2017.

French national coach Mathieu Bernier has registered his two national 4-way teams in 4-way Open and 4-way Women, RealFly-Sion and the French Weembi Girls, which sets three French teams as the top contenders behind NMP PCH HayaBusa in the top spots of the current power rankings.

The French delegation decided once again to sign up the French Girls for the 4-way Open Class competition, even though the World Challenge is offering a separate leaderboard for the teams in 4-way Women. The French Girls competed in 4-way Open at the World Challenge 2016, as well, and won £2,000 for the 2nd place behind the winners from Belgium.

World Challenge 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Weembi Lille	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	RealFly-Sion	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	French Weembi Girls	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Volition	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	IFS-Moscow	RU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Amnesya Fly-In	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	ACM	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Chimera	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	NFTO	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Tenanine	MR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	Pro Team	FI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	HF Flying Circus	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Flyspot Sky4four	PL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	JETMAX	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	Formihyrodynamitevisionx	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18	Equinox	LT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	Corbas Coyotes JCM	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	Antimatter	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
21	Aladeen	HU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
22	Poor 4Cast	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
23	HF Skycentrum	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
24	Mental BloX	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
25	Nova	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
26	Eros	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

This year's 2nd place seems to be out of reach, as Weembi's signature lineup is visiting Bedford this year, and the first two places are probably taken. However, the French national team in 4-way Open is aiming at the 2nd place and the French tickets to the FAI Indoor World Meet in Montreal this year. There is no reason that the French Weembi Girls should set a different goal.

In fact, both teams performed on exactly the same level at the end of the 2016 indoor season, with 27.9 averages in both categories at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2016. RealFly-Sion pulled away from the French Weembi Girls at the first indoor competition this year, the Wind Games, where the French national team in 4-way Women won the separate category (28.0) while the Open Class team finished 3rd with a new 30.3 team record average.

The World Challenge has a second AAA Class leaderboard for the teams in 4-way Women too, which is not offering prize money though.

SDC Rhythm XP has to follow up strongly on last weekend's 26.0 average to have a chance for breaking into the French 4-way phalanx behind NMP PCH HayaBusa.

Russian 4-way competitors Yury Drozdov, Dmitry Komkov and Dmitry "Dima" Samokhval will have a very interesting reunion at the World Challenge 2017. Ocean 5 was one of the Russian top 4-way teams until 2010, when they posted their last scores with a 20.3 average at the national championships.

Egor Gusev completes the IFS-Moscow lineup in Bedford, which will represent Russia this year. He has a 25.7 indoor average in his records that he posted with SportLoto at the World Challenge 2013. Yury Drozdov and Dmitry Samokhval were in the SportLoto lineup at that time. Rhythm may also have to fend off the Russian challenge while trying to catch the French teams...