posted Sep 27th, 2011 - The videos of Round 9 and Round 10 in the female 4way competition at the World Cup 2011 conclude this part of the NSL News event coverage. All ten rounds of all five teams are now available at the YouTube channel of the NSL News.

The Aerodyne Deep Blue Defenders have lived up to their team name so far and have not lost a meet yet with the new lineup. Two reigning world champions of 2010 (Sophie Deremaux, Amélie Tirman) have been doing the job by themselves, while getting help by the two new members (Laurence Hervé, Perrine Sanchez) and videographer Remy Grandcler.

Other Open Class teams have scored higher at the five competitions that the Defenders have attended so far this year, including four female 4way competitors. Lise Aune with the DeLand Norgies and JaNette Lefkowitz with SDC Rhythm XP outscored the Defenders at the Shamrock Showdown 2011, and Satori's Julia Foxwell did the same at the World Challenge 2011. Eliana Rodriguez also scored higher with Arizona Airspeed at the previous lineup's last meet at the Dubai Championship 2011.

World Cup 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	C,22,19	E,M,1,2	12,9,16	O,8,10	Q,14,5	P,17,K,18	21,L,J,13	3,11,B	20,G,H,4	N,F,A,7	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Aerokart	22	27	23	22	26	25	25	24	24	37	255	25.5
2	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	22	27	23	21	24	25	21	23	24	39	249	24.9
3	Paratec-Saar	16	23	19	15	19	18	16	19	20	31	196	19.6
4	Sky Panthers Barkli	18	21	19	16	19	16	15	19	19	33	195	19.5
5	Gradient Alpha	17	21	17	13	20	20	19	18	17	27	189	18.9
6	Aerodyne DB Defenders	16	20	16	17	19	20	19	17	17	28	189	18.9

Fact is still that the new French lineup has not been defeated yet by any team in the female 4way category, and there were also no female competitors in other Open Class teams at the recent World Cup 2011 who scored higher. US teams have not shown signs of a challenge so far, and the strong British 4way competitors don't seem to come together for a new world class lineup so far, while Bodyflight Aerodyne is still in the building phase.

The strong Russian Illusions, who would have been much closer to France without the 19 point deductions, have not announced plans for the 2012 season yet. The German team ISB Air will probably have a comeback soon but lost a whole season and have to catch up quickly. France seems to be in a safe position at the moment.

The 18.9 average at the World Cup in Germany does not seem to compare well to the 20.4 average that the previous Deep Blue lineup posted in the year between the world meets of 2008 and 2010, and the progression between the Shamrock Showdown in March (19.0) and the World Cup (18.9) does not seem to be very convincing, as well. However, comparing the scores of both World Cup events in and 2009 and 2011 shows a different picture.

World Cup 2009		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	8,19,A	7,L,12	10,14,9	22,N,J,G	C,6,5	D,O,4,Q	15,13,18	21,2,20	1,H,17	3,B,M,K	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge	23	24	21	26	23	30	20	20	22	31	240	24.0
2	HayaBusa Defence	21	23	19	24	22	29	16	19	25	31	229	22.9
3	Sinapsi	20	21	19	22	22	28	18	19	18	27	214	21.4
4	Black Cat	21	21	19	25	20	26	17	14	21	28	212	21.2
5	Skylight Barkli	18	21	19	23	22	26	18	13	21	29	210	21.0
6	Aerokart Pamiers Maubeuge	18	21	20	22	19	28	16	17	21	27	209	20.9
7	Aerodyne DB Defenders	19	19	19	21	22	25	15	16	21	27	203	20.4

The World Cup of 2009 came for the previous Deep Blue lineup at the end of the second complete season. The new lineup had only one year to make it up to a similar performance and scoring level.

The 2011 lineup did actually even better this year at the World Cup than the 2009 lineup, after comparing the scores with the teams in the Open Class competition. Deep Blue of 2009 finished in 7th place with the 20.4 average on the combined leaderboard. This year, the French team was tied with Gradient Alpha in 5th place.

It is difficult and challenging for the new team members to show that they can also become 4way world champions in the female category and perform as well as former team members and mothers Bérangère Duplouy and Françoise Simons-Hamouchi. By the way: Bérangère Duplouy visited Saarlouis-Duren with baby and father to follow the competition live on site for a few days.

World Cup 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Women	C,22,19	E,M,1,2	12,9,16	O,8,10	Q,14,5	P,17,K,18	21,L,J,13	3,11,B	20,G,H,4	N,F,A,7	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne DB Defenders	16	20	16	17	19	20	19	17	17 (-1)	28	189	18.9
2	Illusions	12 (-2)	21	17	14 (-3)	16 (-3)	16 (-3)	19	18	15 (-1)	19 (-7)	167	16.7
3	Polaris	13 (-2)	19	13 (-3)	15	15	17	17	13 (-2)	16	23 (-1)	161	16.1
4	Golden Knights	13 (-1)	16	14	15	14	14 (-1)	13 (-1)	15	15	24	153	15.3
5	Bodyflight Aerodyne	13 (-2)	18	12 (-1)	14	12 (-1)	16	12 (-1)	14	14	23 (-1)	148	14.8

The last videos in the female 4way category once again offer interesting insights in many ways. They feature the worst jump of the Illusions in the fastest round of the meet. The seven point deductions in Round 10 completed the total of a 19-point damage, and the Russian team still won the silver medals. The video shows a few more very questionable judging calls in this jump that the audience can evaluate.

Aerodyne Deep Blue Defenders lost their only point of the meet in Round 9, and the deduction was called for "Camera Angle / Grip Visibility". Videographer Rémy Grandcler still kept his clean record, as the penalty was really due to an exit formation that did not fly very well for the first seconds on the hill. Bad luck for a good camera angle.

Even more bad luck it was also for Aerodyne Bodyflight and Polaris in Round 10. Both teams and their videographers presented picture perfect Cranks (N) and had nice subterminal transitions to the Open Accordeon (F). Both teams still did not get their second point as a scoring formation for the same reason: "Camera Angle / Grip Visibility".