posted Apr 2nd, 2019 - It's the week of the World Challenge, and the NSL News will soon report live and directly from Bedford.

Despite the challenging timing for the national teams who will also compete at the FAI Indoor World Meet a week later, most of the best 4-way teams in the world still travel to Bedford, including the reigning indoor and outdoor world champions from Belgium, NMP PCH HayaBusa.

The NSL News was showing the list of teams at both events with the first NSL Power Rankings for the 2019 event (NMP PCH HayaBusa, Arizona Airspeed, Qatar Tigers, Airheads, NFTO, Aladeen). The number of AAA Class teams has increased from 22 to 34 in the meantime, which matches last year's number almost exactly (35).

The list of additional national teams has grown, too. FlySpot Sky4Four will represent Poland at Weembi Lille, and IFS-Moscow from Russia will challenge the Top 3 positions for medals, together with a few more teams. ACM Weembi is the British national indoor team in 4-way Open and with NFTO in the British delegation at the world meet. Both teams also compete for the British indoor title and the FAI 2020 qualification in Bedford.

World Challenge 2019 - NSL Power Rankings			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	KetchUp ADV	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Flyspot Omega	PL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Papea Mixto	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Oman Wolf	OM	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Nebula	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Twinwoods Adventure FFS	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Valkyre	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	ZIRcon4	IE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Aussie Aviators	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Who's Next	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	KO	HU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
World Challenge 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	A Class		H,F,D	6,G	P,L,E	4,M	9,B	N,C,8	K,7	19,2	Q,21	O,J,A	Total	Avg
1	Oman Wolf	OM	35	17	23	16	25	19	22	14	17	30	218	21.8
2	Omega4way	PL	36	16	28	19	20	14	22	12	17	29	213	21.3
3	4eigners	IT	29	15	23	15	24	18	14	13	17	21	189	18.9

Oman Wolf and Flyspot Omega at the World Challenge 2018

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The NSL News also introduced the field of teams in the other three categories, including the AA Class, where several A Class teams of 2018 will be back for the larger dive pool and longer sequences. This list includes last year's A Class winner, Oman Wolf.

Ivan Quadrio from Italy has been coaching Oman Wolf since Oman decided to join the 4-way world. He is a former eX3MO 4-way and 8-way member and started with Oman Wolf after the military team attended the CISM Championship 2016. The team members were true beginners in the sport, with jump numbers below 100.

Ivan Quadrio remembers the very beginnings: "The selection of the 4-way team members wasn't easy, as none of them spoke English." This has not changed much, and he probably needs similar interpretation as Gary Smith has with the Qatar Tigers and Jeremie Rollett with the Qatar Falcons, who have an assigned interpreter in the Qatar delegation.

However, Ivan Quadrio said that he had a great lineup after the selection. The training began in Empuriabrava with an indoor camp and only 1-on-1 skills jumps, after he had convinced the military management that Oman should also have a 4-way team. Accuracy was the main event for Oman's CISM participation before.

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
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
5	Echochamber	SE	30		30		23	-1	37	-3	27	-1	25		22	-2	32		22	-2	23		271	27.1

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It was a successful transition from only Accuracy into adding 4-way competition, as Oman Wolf is still around two years later and with the same Italian coach. Ivan Quadrio said that it is even better now, as his lineup has dropped Accuracy and trains only 4-way.

Oman Wolf started to compete in the Rookie Class of 2017 and finished in 2nd place behind the Bahrain team at the 1st Arab Championship. Then the team moved up into the A Class for the World Challenge 2018 and won the gold medals after an exciting battle with Flyspot Omega from Poland. Both teams will now have a re-match this week in the AA Class competition of the World Challenge 2019.

Oman Wolf comes to Bedford this year with a total of 180 team jumps and a few hours of indoor training, and the World Challenge is the main goal for the 2019 season, even though the team will follow up with two outdoor events, the CISM Championship in Switzerland and the Asiana Championship in China.

Ivan Quadrio says that the Oman Wolf 4-way project is still under military scrutiny, but he is positive that "all is going to be OK for a few more years". Oman has great military role model teams to follow. NMP PCH HayaBusa, Golden Knights, Qatar Tigers and Falcons have demonstrated how to get to the top of the world's 4-way and 8-way Open Class leaderboards, and Ivan Quadrio plans to follow on the same path with Oman Wolf, if he eventually gets the same financial and logistical support.

Ivan Quadrio had more interesting news from Italy, too, where Amnesya, reigning national indoor and outdoor champions and FAI Indoor World Cup bronze medalist of 2018, have a new lineup, including himself. The NSL News will follow up with more details soon...