posted Apr 7th, 2019 - The small 8-way competition of the World Challenge on Sunday created much more drama in the battle for gold medals than the 4-way competition generated, and the NSL News will soon follow up with more 8-way details and videos.

However, NMP PCH HayaBusa's cruise to the 25-point winning margin over Arizona Airspeed still offered more than enough interesting footage and topics. It's not only the 34.7 average performance, which can now be reviewed on the next set of NSL-TV videos, even though it's the third highest meet average in 4-way history, all posted by the Belgian indoor and outdoor world champions.

This year's visit in Bedford also brought back together HayaBusa's complete original lineup: David and Andy Grauwels, Sven Ibens, Roy Janssen. It is not so unusual that this can happen, as all current and former team members are still very active in 4-way training and competition.

In fact, the same was already the case at last year's World Challenge and in 2017, as well. Only the circumstances were different in 2017 and 2018 compared to this year, and the same four original members did not come together for a NSL Live Talk. This time, there were longer breaks between the four rounds on Saturday, and the complete current HayaBusa lineup joined a unique conversation with the two original team members, Sven Ibens and Roy Janssen.

World Challenge 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		P,H,Q,5	19,16,E	L,3,2	B,A,22,D	J,14,8	11,M,G,1	15,21,18	7,O,4	C,N,K,13	20,6,F	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	52	32	28	39	29	32	28	34	42	31	347	34.7
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	48	30	27	37	27	31	25	33	36	28	322	32.2
3	IFS-Moscow	RU	44	29	26	33	27	29	23	33	34	31	309	30.9
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	44	29	26	35	24	29	24	31	32	31	305	30.5
5	SDC Rhythm XP	US	46	28	24	32	25	29	24	31	35	27	301	30.1
6	Airheads	CH	44	28	22	36	24	27	19	29	33	26	288	28.8
7	Weembi Unicorns	FR	43	28	23	32	23	28	19	28	33	26	283	28.3
8	ISR FireFlash	BE	40	26	24	33	24	25	19	25	28	26	270	27.0
9	NFTO	UK	35	25	24	29	24	25	20	27	30	24	263	26.3
10	Odin Parachute Systems	FR	35	28	21	29	22	25	20	25	29	25	259	25.9
10	Chimera	UK	36	24	21	27	23	27	21	25	29	26	259	25.9
12	ACM Weembi	UK	38	22	24	28	21	24	21	25	29	26	258	25.8
13	Gavroche Weembi	FR	38	27	23	26	21	25	14	27	28	23	252	25.2
14	Tenanine	MR	37	25	22	22	20	24	19	26	29	22	246	24.6
15	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	36	19	18	26	20	22	19	25	21	21	227	22.7
16	Eros	UK	27	21	22	24	19	23	17	24	27	21	225	22.5
17	Jazz Republic	ZA	29	22	18	23	19	20	18	24	23	22	218	21.8
18	Falco	BE	22	20	17	19	20	20	17	24	26	19	204	20.4
19	Blackjack	FI	24	20	17	23	19	19	15	21	22	18	198	19.8
20	Pajama Pumas	UK	27	21	16	21	19	19	16	21	20	17	197	19.7
21	Tempo	FI	26	18	18	23	18	19	15	21	20	18	196	19.6
22	Aladeen	HU	28	21	19	16	16	19	13	19	18	20	189	18.9
23	Alakran	ES	26	18	12	18	17	21	17	23	18	18	188	18.8
24	FlyPonots	FR	26	19	17	21	16	18	10	18	18	18	181	18.1
25	Nefertit	UK	24	18	16	18	15	16	13	20	17	16	173	17.3
26	Windobona Angels	ES	20	16	14	18	16	17	15	21	17	18	172	17.2
27	Ayro	BE	16	18	15	18	17	15	14	19	19	17	168	16.8
28	Koloncok	HU	21	16	13	19	14	16	15	19	18	16	167	16.7
29	Stardust	BE	21	15	12	17	16	16	11	18	17	13	156	15.6
30	Nova	CH	21	14	12	16	13	13	11	17	19	16	152	15.2
31	Barak	ES	25	19	17	21	16	19	14	19	0	0	150	15.0
32	Wood Fella’s	UK	17	13	10	16	13	13	11	17	19	13	142	14.2
33	Draconis	UK	16	13	12	13	12	15	10	15	13	15	134	13.4
34	Free Burds	IE	16	10	11	11	13	12	11	15	15	13	127	12.7

National teams for next week's FAI Woirld Meet 2019 in yellow

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Sven Ibens left the team after the FAI World Meet 2006 in Germany and soon resumed 4-way training and competition, first with ISR Thunder and now with ISR FireFlash. HayaBusa and FireFlash even joined forces for some 8-way training and competition with Fly-In Machine 44, and they posted an 18.5 average at the USPA Nationals 2017, dangerously close to the Golden Knights at the team's first 8-way competition.

Roy Janssen left the team after the first HayaBusa gold medals at the FAI World Meet 2014 in Prostejov. The Belgians added two more sets of outdoor gold medals in Chicago 2016 and Australia 2018 with new member Jeroen Nollet, while Roy Janssen built up a strong French 4-way lineup, together with Weembi Lille owner Julien Degen, with the goal to offer more opposition against the most dominating 4-way team in the world.

The Weembi challenge began actually at the Clash of Champions in 2015, including a reunion of the original HayaBusa lineup in their three different teams: NMP PCH HayaBusa (David and Andy Grauwels) - Weembi Lille (Roy Janssen) - ISR Thunder (Sven Ibens). This was also the event where HayaBusa joined forces with ISR Thunder for their first 8-way indoor competition (Thund8rbirds).

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Roy Janssen eventually became a member of the French national indoor 4-way team and has been competing officially for France. Weembi Lille's first lineup of four 4-way world champions (Roy Janssen, Julien Degen, Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier) put the pressure on NMP PCH HayaBusa that they were planning to generate, including a 1-point drama at the World Challenge 2017.

Then the next Weembi lineup, this time with 4-way Women world champions Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis, came dangerously close (345 - 349) at last year's World Challenge and finally defeated the indoor and outdoor world champions from Belgium at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018.

Roy Janssen did not compete in Bedford this weekend, as he had many times before and last year. He was coaching several teams and had the opportunity to carefully observe his opponents next week at the FAI Indoor World Meet. His team mate Julien Degen had the same opportunity, as he competed with Weembi Legion's Unicorns lineup at the World Challenge.

Sven Ibens celebrated Glenn Straeluyc's comeback after a serious back injury with the lineup's new FireFlash record average, and all original HayaBusa members exchanged their experiences and some stories with the two newest members, Dennis Praet and Jeroen Nollet.