posted May 22nd, 2018 - The Top 9 competition at the World Challenge 2018 featured a 3-team battle for the highest spot behind the four teams that have a 30+ indoor average in their records, even though IFS-Moscow missed this mark in Bedford.

This battle for the 5th place pushed ACM Weembi and ISR FireFlash to new team records, and Gavroche had to perform on the team's top level to keep up with the two other top contenders.

The NSL News pointed out the impressive ACM Weembi performance and featured the team's meet videos with the update on 13 March 2018. The story was related to the three British teams in the Top 9 (ACM Weembi - Chimera - NFTO) and did not relate to the battle for the 5th place, which was much more exciting.

ACM Weembi, Gavroche and ISR FireFlash were separated by only four points after ten rounds, which was the closest race on the top level of 4-way competition at this year's World Challenge. NMP PCH HayaBusa and Weembi Mix MF finished with a 4-point difference, as well, while the three teams had only 2-point distances between each other.

World Challenge 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		10,H,F,13		20,6,22		12,1,11		4,M,G,J		9,B,P,A		N,C,8,3		K,7,L,D		18,19,14		5,Q,21		15,16,O		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	31		25		25		38		62		32	-1	47	-1	26		31	-2	32	-1	349	34.9
2	Weembi Mix MF	FR	29		25		24	-1	40		59	-2	33		45	-1	27		32	-2	31		345	34.5
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	29		24		23	-1	35	-1	59		26	-3	43		24		33	-1	28		324	32.4
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	26		21	-1	23		33		50		26	-1	40		23		29		24	-1	295	29.5
5	ACM Weembi	UK	24		21		21		29		48		21	-4	36		21		25		23		269	26.9
6	Gavroche Weembi	FR	23		17	-2	17	-2	31		46		25		35	-3	21		26		26		267	26.7
7	ISR FireFlash	BE	23		17	-2	20	-1	28		45		27		35	-1	21		25		24		265	26.5
8	Chimera	UK	23	-1	21		20		26	-2	44		24		31	-4	21		24		24		258	25.8
9	NFTO	UK	21		19		19		29		42		23		31	-2	19		22	-1	19	-2	244	24.4

ISR FireFlash was one of the four AAA Class teams from Belgium and moved from 10th place in 2017 to 7th at this year's event, which meant serious contention for ACM Weembi's 5th place.

It was the World Challenge 2017 where FireFlash completed a 10-round meet with the whole dive pool the last time.

The Belgian team continued with three outdoor meets last year, and the complete lineup then won the ISR Grand Prix 2017 in November with a 27.3 average. This event is over after eight rounds and has a limited dive pool.

FireFlash also won the Belgian national indoor title in December with a 20.7 average, behind guest teams Amnesya from Italy and Airbus from Germany. Former HayaBusa member Luc Verstrepen substituted for Wesley Claessens at the Belgian Indoor Nationals 2017.

The complete lineup was back together four months later in Bedford and destroyed their own previous record average for a 10-round meet (24.2) with the 26.5 at the World Challenge 2018.

FireFlash will focus once again on outdoor training and competition after the World Challenge. This year, the team has the main focus on the 20-average outdoor benchmark.

The Belgian Outdoor Nationals 2018 are scheduled for September, and the summer training is targeted at this event.

In fact, outdoor training began for FireFlash before the indoor season was completed in Bedford.

Niklas Hemlin worked with the Belgians at Skydive Arizona in March, where they completed 84 training jumps, which was almost as much 4-way outdoor training as FireFlash had in 2017 all together.

Three weekend training camps in April/May in Belgium have added 85 jumps to the 2018 total, and many of them were alongside NMP PCH HayaBusa.

World champion coach Gary Smith was helping FireFlash whenever he had some extra time available.

Three more extended weekend camps are scheduled for the summer, and a 4-day camp will bring the final touch right before the national championships. The 26+ indoor average in Bedford indicated in April that the 20+ outdoor average is more than in reach...