posted Oct 29th, 2018 - Nothing changed any more on the third and last day of the race for FAI gold medals at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018, as it could be expected and as Weembi Mix and NMP PCH HayaBusa knew already at the end of the second day. HayaBusa won the two last rounds by a point and the total of the last six rounds, as well, and still ended up 12 points behind, after falling behind by 13 points in the four rounds of the first day.

Weembi Mix is the best indoor 4-way team in the world at this point in time and will try to add the world championship title to the world cup gold medals in March 2019 on home turf at Weembi Lille. They missed the standing world record average of 34.9 by four points and tied their own 34.5 team record.

Christine Malnis and Sophia Pecout provided even more evidence that female 4-way competitors are completely on eye level with their male opponents and team mates. They easily won the FAI gold medals in 4-way Women at the FAI World Meet 2018 and would have placed 3rd on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard, together with their Aerodyne Weembi team mates Clementine Le Bohec and Pamela Lissajoux. Only Christine Malnis and Sophia Pecout then followed up with the FAI gold medals in 4-way Open with their Weembi Mix team mates Roy Janssen and Julien Degen. They collected the two different sets of outdoor and indoor FAI gold medals within three weeks.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		K,17,J,21		4,H,F,11		18,L,16		5,M,O,C		N,8,P,19		6,9,10		D,12,15		Q,B,G,22		20,E,14		7,3,2		Total	Avg
1	Weembi Mix MF	FR	34	-3	35		31		57		33	-2	31		30		39		29	-2	26	-2	345	34.5
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	35		35		27	-1	47	-3	33	-1	31		31		38	-1	28	-2	28	-1	333	33.3

The final indoor words between Weembi Mix, NMP PCH HayaBusa and also Arizona Airspeed will be spoken next year, first at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019 and then at the end of the 2018/2019 indoor season at the World Challenge in Bedford.

The exciting battle for the bronze medals in Bahrain went almost unnoticed due to the showdown between Weembi Mix and NMP PCH HayaBusa, even though it was much closer than the battle between the top teams.

In fact, the 1-point race between Amnesya and IFS-Moscow was the highlight of all battles for FAI medals in Bahrain. All other medal winners in the three covered 4-way events were safely in their final positions on the last day of the competition. The closest finishing margin after the 1-point bronze medal battle in 4-way Open were 6-point differences for silver and bronze in 4-way Women.

Amnesya won the first set of FAI medals for Italy with a new record average for an FAI World Cup bronze medal winner. The French national team in 4-way Open, Aerodyne Realfly, had won the bronze medals in 2016 with a 27.9 average. The 3rd place in Bahrain was also the first set of FAI indoor medals for a team from Italy.

The course of the duel between Amnesya and IFS-Moscow was almost a copy of the competition between Weembi Mix and NMP PCH HayaBusa. Amnesya had a strong start and a 5-point lead at the end of the four rounds on the first day of the meet. The Russian team came back on the Amnesya level on Day 2 and began to catch up in Round 8. Amnesya then carried the extremely thin 1-point advantage over the finish line only due to a point deduction for IFS-Moscow in the last round, which avoided an extra round.

FAI Indoor World Cup 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		K,17,J,21		4,H,F,11		18,L,16		5,M,O,C		N,8,P,19		6,9,10		D,12,15		Q,B,G,22		20,E,14		7,3,2		Total	Avg
3	Amnesya	IT	30		28	-1	24	-1	46		26		27		21	-2	30		24		24		280	28.0
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	28	-3	29		21	-3	45		26	-1	27		21	-3	33		24		25	-1	279	27.9

IFS-Moscow almost became the next Russian 4-way team in a fly-off extra round for FAI bronze medals. Black Cat had competed for Russia at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2018 and missed the bronze medals after a 1-point world record extra round loss (58 - 59) against Arizona Airspeed.

Black Cat did not train and compete this year at international events, as all team members were focusing only on 8-way training and competition with Tanay, silver medalist at the FAI World Meet 2018. IFS-Moscow was one of the three teams from Russia in Bahrain and eventually missed the bronze medals by one point without an extra round.

The IFS-Moscow lineup included one Tanay 8-way member though. Dmitry Samokhval has been a player-coach for the indoor team since it was formed in 2017 and competed for the first time at the World Challenge the same year. In the NSL Power Rankings, IFS-Moscow became one of the top contenders for bronze medals in Bahrain after the 29.5 average at the World Challenge 2018.

Black Cat and IFS-Moscow both still attended the Russian Indoor Nationals 2018 before all Black Cat members and Dmitry Samokhval focused on the 8-way event. Black Cat did not compete in Bahrain, and IFS-Moscow did not get enough training to copy the World Challenge performance. Amnesya on the other hand mastered the transition from outdoor in Australia (6th) to indoor competition in Bahrain impressively well and earned the FAI bronze medals for the effort.