posted Oct 24th, 2017 - NMP PCH HayaBusa has not been the only dominating team in the Formation Skydiving indoor and outdoor world of the recent years. The Golden Knights had not lost a meet to any other team in 4-way Women since August 2014, after taking the world's top spot away from France in this event. The French Girls had the same dominating indoor and outdoor position for several years, which came to an end after winning the last FAI outdoor gold medals in Prostejov 2014.

The French Weembi Girls are now on the way to regain the same dominating top spot after winning outdoor gold at the FAI World Cup 2017 and indoor gold last weekend in Montreal without much competition in either event.

4-way VFS team SDC Core had a very similar dominating position in this event since 2015. Parallel with the Golden Knights in 4-way Women, SDC Core never lost a meet after placing 3rd at the USPA Nationals 2014. The Core success included FAI gold medals at the FAI Mondial 2016 and at the FAI World Cup 2017.

Also similarly to the Golden Knights, SDC Core upset the French national VFS teams of the past years at Skydive Chicago. Before that, France had won all FAI world meet gold medals ever since the event was included at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving in Menzelinsk 2010.

FAI Indoor World Meet 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way VFS		8,17,F	9,A,16	18,G,12	21,O,N,K	P,13,B,C	2,E,22	3,H,14	6,J,Q,7	1,15,20	D,M,10,19	Total	Avg
1	VFS 4	FR	38	31	30(-2)	28(-1)	25(-3)	53(-6)	32(-1)	31(-1)	24(-1)	23	315	31.5
2	SDC Core	US	32(-3)	34	22(-7)	32(-2)	29	56(-3)	31	26(-4)	24	23(-2)	309	30.9
3	Flyspot Definition	PL	28	26	21	25(-1)	24(-1)	43(-3)	20(-2)	22(-1)	19	17(-2)	245	24.5
4	Team Toronto	CA	27	19(-2)	19(-3)	16(-6)	16(-4)	36(-2)	21	19(-2)	19	16(-1)	208	20.8
5	Kwansta Kwattro	SE	16(-2)	16	13(-1)	19	13(-2)	23(-3)	18	16	14	13(-1)	161	16.1
6	Siriusly, Wait for It	FI	14	14(-1)	10(-1)	8(-4)	13	26	11	13(-1)	9	11(-1)	129	12.9

The similarities between the two events go even farther. France continued in 4-way Women after losing to the Golden Knights and are now back in the top spot, even though it became much easier when the Golden Knights retired.

It was much more challenging for France in 4-way VFS where SDC Core had no plans to slow down after winning the FAI gold medals last year.

National coach Philippe "Le Professeur" Schorno had to design a plan to bring France back to the top spot after the silver medals on U.S. territory in 2016.

The plan for a new lineup was not too complicated. Two of the 2014 world champions (Raphael Coudray, Frederic Nenet) teamed up with two members of the 2016 lineup (Edouard Henry, Mickael Melo) who had won the silver medals for France at the Mondial.

SDC Core trained and competed with changing lineups this year, while France was working on catching up. It was very unusual that France did not even send a 4-way VFS team to the FAI World Cup in Saarlouis, where SDC Core and Golden Knights won gold and silver for the U.S. delegation.

The new French lineup was obviously ready for the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 and may have surprised SDC Core with the performance level in Montreal. The U.S. team posted one of the highest meet averages in VFS history (30.9) which was still not enough to win the FAI indoor gold medals.

The new French VFS lineup finished six points ahead of SDC Core with a 31.5 average after a fierce battle and is back in the world's VFS top spot.

It was the first international 10-round meet in 4-way VFS. The previous dive pool had limited VFS teams to 8-round meets, and FAI/IPC expanded the dive pool after the Mondial 2016 to allow 10-round meets in this 4-way event, as well.

The draw included a very fast sequence in Round 6 that generated a new world record score for a single round with SDC Core's 56-pointer.

The U.S. team now owns the world record, while France won the FAI indoor gold medals with the highest 10-round average in history. SDC Core is facing French competition again and will try to defend the FAI outdoor gold medals successfully next year in Australia.

NMP PCH HayaBusa is still the only reigning FAI indoor and outdoor world champion...