posted Mar 26th, 2023 - The official preliminary list of teams for the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023 allows the NSL News to post an up-to-date preview. It is the 4-way Women event that features the first NSL Power Rankings, and which may also promise the most exciting battle for the FAI indoor medals.

It seemed for a while that there would be a duel for the indoor gold medals between the British outdoor world champions of NFTO and the former indoor world champions in 4-way Junior from the Czech Republic, HF Cubs.

The situation changed when French national coach Mathieu Bernier successfully recruited a very promising 4-way Women lineup, as the NSL News reported on March 16th. The French national team in 4-way Women for the indoor world championship became instantly a top contender for the gold medals.

In fact, France is actually still the defending indoor world champion in this event, after the Nephtys won at Weembi Lille 2019. Two members of the 2019 lineup (Pamela Lissajoux, Elise Poindron) will be back and try to defend their title, together with Christine Malnis and Sophia Pecout.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		M,K,D,14		Q,4,5		P,E,9,15		3,N,G,2		6,1,8		F,12,11		13,22,J		H,L,B,18		O,20,A,17		21,7,19		Total	Avg
1	Nephtys Weembi	FR	34		27		35		25		23		25		23		33	-1	31		24		280	28.0
2	NFTO	UK	34		26	-1	34		28	-1	23		24		24		34		28	-1	23	-2	278	27.8
3	XPG4	US	34		26		33		24		21	-1	24		24		28	-4	25		23		262	26.2
4	Bubble Hubble	RU	29	-2	25	-2	33		24	-1	22		23		22		31		25		21	-2	255	25.5
5	China	CN	31	-3	26	-1	31		22	-2	23		24		22	-1	30	-3	22	-3	23	-2	254	25.4
6	Team X	SE	26		25		28	-1	24		20		22		23		28	-1	24		23		243	24.3
7	No Mercy	PL	29		22		25	-1	21		19		17	-1	21		23	-5	20	-1	22		219	21.9
8	Skynamite	DE	28	-1	20	-2	26		20		17	-1	17	-2	19		26		18	-2	19	-2	210	21.0
9	Voss Vind Girls	NO	27	-2	22		24	-1	18	-1	18		19		20		23	-1	19	-1	19		209	20.9

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France - NFTO - XPG4 at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2019

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The situation and the power rankings changed again when U.S. national team Paraclete XPG4 recently announced that the newest member, Shannon Catalano, will not continue with the team. She had joined XPG4 when Jeana Billings decided to train and compete only with the U.S. 8-way world champions of 2021 and 2022, Paraclete XP8, as the NSL News reported on January 10th.

Shannon Catalano's withdrawal came surprisingly for XPG4, while the occurring emergency situation created a very promising lineup for the indoor world championship. Jeana Billings agreed to re-join the team and train intensively with XPG4 in 4-way at least until the completion of the upcoming event.

The same lineup (Jeana Billings, Michelle Karamon, Anna Brunner, Brenn Richards) have spent more than a whole year together and were already at a 24.6 average in February 2022 at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2022.

Jeana Billings and Michelle Karamon have also won FAI bronze medals together (26.2) with the 2019 lineup (Katrina Autry Shows, Morgan Womble). The most recent change will make the team probably even strong enough to be in contention for the gold medals in Slovakia.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	France 4-way Women	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	HF Cubs	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	NFTO	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	XPG4	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Piteraq	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Airdrops	CH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Windabona Angels Chicas	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Fire Phoenix	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Kiss My Grips	SK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The number of registered teams for the 4-way Women competition is identical with the participation at Weembi Lille in 2019, even though only four countries are back with national teams in this event (France, Great Britain, United States, Germany).

France and XPG4 both have lineups with two new members, and NFTO has more consistency with three returning team mates who have trained and competed together indoors and outdoors since 2018 (Anna Hicks, Vana Parker, Sian Stokes). Germany will be represented by Piteraq in Slovakia, after Skynamite in 2019.

The most consistent lineup is the 4-way Women team of the Czech Republic, HF Cubs. Sabina Cioleková, Karolina Henkova, Viktorie Nováková and Adela Vesela have trained and competed together in changing lineups since 2015, until the current lineup won the world championship title in 4-way Junior in 2019, followed by the FAI indoor gold medals in 4-way Women at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022.

The competition for the HF Cubs will be significantly tougher than a year ago in Charleroi, where only the Nephtys lineup of 2022 was challenging the Czech team. This time, all three indoor and outdoor world champions of the past years are registered for the same event and want to win. XPG4 with Jeana Billings will be the 4th top contender.