posted Feb 8th, 2010 - The World Challenge 2010 will not only feature the next showdown and 2010 test for the best 4-way Open Class teams in the world. The same event will also bring at least two of the 2010 top contenders in the female 4-way category together at Bodyflight Bedford.

This would be the first serious confrontation in 2010, unless UK's Team Bodyflight or US team Spaceland Blue will show up in DeLand for the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010. The French national team, Aerokart Deep Blue Maubeuge, has already bought the tickets to DeLand.

The rivalry in the female category between the United Kingom, the United States and France has been going on ever since the event was created in 1999. Only France has not won gold medals at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving yet.

The US team Synchronicity (Lilac Hayes, Sally Hathaway, Sally Stewart, Eliana Rodriguez) won the first official world meet gold medals in Spain 2001. The UK team VMax (Sacha Chilton, Liz Matthews, Sarah Laughton, Claire Scott) took the 1st place in France 2003. A different Synchronicity lineup (Jaimie Johnson, Kimberly Glover, Jacquelyn O'Bryan, Sally Hathaway) took it back in Croatia 2004. The gold medals in Germany 2006 and France 2008 went to the United Kingdom.

France has won IPC gold medals, too, but only at World Cups with relatively low participation. There were no teams from the United Kingdom or the USA in Russia 2007 and the Czech Republic 2009 when France won the gold mdedals. However, the situation looks more promising than ever for the Deep Blue lineup at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010.

There is no doubt that it will be a very close race, at least between Deep Blue and the new UK team in the female category, Team Bodyflight (Sarah Smith-Cannon, Amanda Kemp, Tarnya Hollis, Liz Matthews and alternate Claire Scott). The chart with the scoring history below shows why.

The female UK teams had a head start when the event was launched in 1999, as France did not participate in the early years and sent a team to an IPC event for the first time at the World Cup in 2002. UK's VMax lineup of 2002 was still far ahead (14.7 - 10.0) of the first French lineup.

However, France consistently improved performance and scoring level ever since, and the Deep Blue lineup eventually posted the highest 10-round average in the history of female 4-way competition at the World Cup 2009.

This Deep Blue lineup (Sophie Deremaux, Bérangère Duplouy, Françoise Simons-Hamouchi, Amélie Tirman) has trained and competed together since 2007 and has now a head start compared to Team Bodyflight and the US team.

UK's progression curve does not look as consistent as the French one over the years. However, the dips in 2004 and 2009 occurred only when the United Kingdom sent teams to the world meets that did not consist of the female top competitors and former world champions, who actually took breaks or were in the process of forming new lineups by then.

Connecting the hypothetical dots between 2003 and 2006, then again between 2006 and 2008, and finally assuming an ongoing progression shows a very different picture. The new Team Bodyflight lineup will surely give Deep Blue a hard fight for the gold medals this year, as this year's team consists once again of some of the best UK has to offer in the female category.

The World Challenge 2010 could even bring a psychological advantage to the UK team. The team members are highly skilled "tunnel rats", and two of them (Tarnya Hollis, Amanda Kemp, together with alternate Claire Scott) already outscored the same Deep Blue lineup (22.9 - 22.0) at the World Challenge 2009. Pussy Galore was more or less a pickup team and competed only at the World Challenge 2009 and then again at the UK Nationals 2009.

Team Bodyflight will already show at the World Challenge 2010 what Deep Blue has to expect in Russia this year. However, The French team surely has the advantage of much more outdoor training and competition experience, and the IPC gold medals will be given to the winner after ten rounds from a Turbolet.

It will be interesting to see how the French team will handle the British tunnel pressure in Bedford after the team's next outdoor scores will have been posted at the Shamrock Showdown. Deep Blue could also put a lot of pressure on Team Bodyflight if the French team can even keep up with the British tunnel experts.

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