posted Apr 21st, 2023 - The NSL News dedicated the second day of the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023 to the specific coverage of some of the top teams who set the standards in 4-way Formation Skydiving competition. This feature begins with the French national team in 4-way Open and the youngest lineup in this category.

National coach Mathieu Bernier began with the rebuilding of the French national team after the last outdoor world championship, the FAI Tanay Mondial in August 2021. Alban Rumolo, one of the youngest French 4-way and 8-way competitors in the country's history, was already in the 8-way and 4-way lineup in Russia, together with Damien Gouriou, the only team member older than 25 years of age.

Mathieu Bernier's next step was sending an even younger lineup to the 4-way Open Class competition of the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022. It was almost the complete Aerokart Ak'demie junior lineup who competed for France in Charleroi and outscored Arizona Airspeed in Round 2. This would be the last time that any team in the world would score higher for a single round than Airspeed.

Mathieu Quizy was the only team member who was not in the 4-way junior lineup of the Aerokart Ak'demie, and Mathieu Bernier selected him and Tom Mattoni for the new French 4-way Open Class team in both environments, indoors and outdoors. Tom Mattoni had gone through the basic training for a skydiver while he competed with the Aerokart Ak'demie junior team.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		E,14,3		K,F,22,17		O,7,5		N,2,18		L,P,12,15		M,10,D,H		16,9,C		1,G,J,8		4,Q,21		6,20,A		B,11,19		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	27		35		39		27	-2	31		38		38		29		-		-		-		264	33.0
2	France 4-way Open	FR	27		33		38		26	-2	28		33	-3	35		28		-		-		-		248	31.0
3	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	26	-1	30		33	-3	26	-3	28		37	-1	37		28		-		-		-		245	30.6
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24		29	-1	32	-1	26		25	-3	32		30	-2	26		-		-		-		224	28.0
5	Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource	DE	22	-2	28	-1	33		22		25		30	-2	31		24		-		-		-		215	26.9
6	FLY X	IT	19	-4	27		30	-1	20	-1	21	-1	29	-2	30	-1	23	-1	-		-		-		199	24.9
7	Purple Maze	FI	22		26		29		19	-3	21		29		27		25		-		-		-		198	24.8
8	Papea	ES	23	-1	24	-2	29	-2	19	-5	21	-2	28	-2	28		25		-		-		-		197	24.6
8	HF Flying Circus	CZ	20	-2	23	-1	29	-1	22		20	-2	30	-2	29		24		-		-		-		197	24.6
8	Echochamber Oceanside	SE	22		26	-1	30		17	-5	24		28	-3	27	-2	23		-		-		-		197	24.6
11	Agera	NO	22		24		29		19	-1	23		25	-2	26	-2	23		-		-		-		191	23.9
12	Out of the Blue	NL	22		23	-2	27	-2	21	-1	21		26	-1	26	-1	22	-1	-		-		-		188	23.5
13	Meraki	UK	17	-4	24		26	-3	22		19	-2	27		28		22	-1	-		-		-		185	23.1
14	INIT-Y	BR	19	-2	20	-3	29		15	-4	19	-1	27		27		23	-1	-		-		-		179	22.4
15	Realfly Fire	CH	20	-1	21	-2	26	-1	17	-2	20		27		24	-2	23		-		-		-		178	22.3
16	Bronteroc	HU	20	-1	22	-1	24	-3	18	-1	20	-1	26	-1	25	-1	19	-1	-		-		-		174	21.8
17	FlySpot Sky4Four	PL	21		21	-1	24	-3	16	-2	21		27		25		17	-6	-		-		-		172	21.5
18	Red Bull Aerodynamix	AT	20	-1	21	-2	21	-3	16	-2	23		26	-1	25	-1	16	-3	-		-		-		168	21.0
19	Magic 4	LT	17	-1	19	-2	23		15	-4	20		27		25	-1	18	-3	-		-		-		164	20.5

The new lineup, with Damien Gouriou and Alban Rumolo, came back from the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2022 without a 4-way Open Class medal, which is very unusual for any French national team. They ended up in 4th place and went to work after that.

They came back to outdoor competition at the Shamrock Showdown 2023, where they changed the ranking order between the same four top teams of the world and placed 2nd behind Arizona Airspeed, ahead of NMP PCH HayaBusa and Qatar Tigers.

Once again, the same four teams together, with their identical lineups, switched to indoor training and competition for the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, and they are placed after Round 8 in the same order as they did at Skydive DeLand last month.

The new French national team tied two of the ten Airspeed scores at the outdoor competition, tied the next score in Round 1 of the running indoor competition, and were only four points behind Airspeed at the end of the first day. The distance has grown to 16 points after Round 8, and NMP PCH HayaBusa has started to pick up the pace and challenge France for the 2nd place. The NSL-TV Unfiltered video is featuring the French team during the preparations for Round 5 on Friday morning.

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France 4-way Open preparations for Round 5

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