posted Aug 14th, 2019 - It was a coincidence that a new NSL Live Talk with the British national team in 4-way Women, NFTO, followed immediately after yesterday's NSL News update, which covered the British 4-way delegation for the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019.

The NSL News reported earlier that Roy Janssen has begun coaching NFTO, after the team's previous work with Gary Smith. The new NSL Live Talk was scheduled for yesterday, which happened to be the same time when the NSL News introduced the British 4-way delegation.

Angel Fernandez, Communications Manager for the British Parachute Association (BPA), had provided the NSL News with the official registration information earlier this week, and yesterday's update introduced the British teams who will travel to Arizona in October.

The NSL News was planning to have a conversation with new NFTO coach Roy Janssen at the same time and together with the team, which did not materialize yesterday. However, all four NFTO members were available and had another new adventurous travel story to tell. The previous travel story was created by a live performance of the team at the BBC studios in London during the last days before the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019 at Weembi Lille.

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NSL Live Talk with NFTO on August 14th - NFTO Live on BBC in April

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4-way Women history at FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving between 2001 and 2018

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This time, the NFTO travel story was related to an even much longer travel distance, compared to the few hours between Weembi Lille and London. NFTO was originally planning to train on home turf in Great Britain for a week, together with coach Roy Janssen.

The weather forecast was so bad that the team decided on a very short call to move the training camp to Skydive Algarve in Portugal. They bought plane tickets on Monday and left London on Tuesday morning, arriving in Portugal a few hours later. They completed the scheduled training day after four jumps in the afternoon and were still available for the NSL Live Talk in the evening.

There is a very good reason for the British team to use any available time for training as efficiently as possible. NFTO seems to be closer than ever to the French 4-way Women world champions, who have dominated the 4-way Women event in the time period of the last five FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving (2010 - 2018).

The first half of the 4-way Women history (2001 - 2008) was dominated by British teams who won gold medals in 2003, 2006 and 2008. NFTO seem to have a chance for new gold medals, after two sets of bronze medals for the British delegation in 2014 and 2016, and the 2nd place in Australia 2018.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	29	20	24	22	25	56	23	18	22	18	257	25.7
2	NFTO	UK	20	15	22	19	18	38	18	17	19	16	202	20.2
3	Team X	SE	17	10	18	16	14	36	15	13	18	12	169	16.9
4	Phoenix XP	US	17	12	17	14	15	37	16	12	14	13	167	16.7
4	Boomerang Betty	AU	19	11	18	14	15	32	15	13	17	13	167	16.7
6	Fuzion Voltige	CA	17	9	18	14	15	34	14	13	14	13	161	16.1
7	Skynamite	DE	19	12	16	14	14	27	13	12	15	12	154	15.4

NFTO at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 - Aerodyne Cypres Lille-Bondues at the French Outdoor Nationals 2019

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The potential gold medal opportunity occurred when French national coach Mathieu Bernier decided to give 8-way competition highest priority after missing the first world meet in 8-way history. The French 4-way Women world champion lineup, with its new 2019 lineup, has become the strong foundation for the new 8-way team, and the French budget will allow only a small amount of 4-way training jumps.

The French plan was based on the extraordinary and historic performance level of the French national team in 4-way Women, who won the last world meet in October 2018 with a 25.7 average, far ahead of all other teams in this category, including NFTO with a 20.2 average.

However, new slot assignments for the exits and lack of 4-way training with new member Gaelle Giesen did not allow the French 4-way Women world champions to launch the 2019 competition season on a similar performance and scoring level. In fact, the raw scoring numbers indicate that NFTO and Aerodyne Cypres Lille-Bondues are currently performing on a very similar scoring level.

The training plan between 4-way and 8-way will not change much in France, while NFTO is exclusively focused on 4-way training and competition. Both teams will meet directly for the first time this year at the FAI Outdoor World Cup, even if the BPA signs up NFTO for the 4-way Open Class competition. All teams, in both 4-way Open and 4-way Women, perform the same ten sequences...