posted Aug 31st, 2004 - The French national head coach, Jerome David, kindly provided the NSL News with insights after the conclusion of the French National Championship 2004. The event took place on July 31 - August 5 in Vannes, France. It included all skydiving disciplines and attracted 39 4-way teams in two different competition classes and seven 8-way teams in the Formation Skydiving events.

French Championship 2004		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Av.
Rank	Teams - 4way	6-18-K	14-H-3	13-7-17	8-12-5	9-19-21	E-22-M-O	1-J-20	H-B-N-D-C	Total	Av.
1	France Maubeuge	18	19	21	14	23	25	21	41	182	22.8
2	Veloce Aerokart	14	18	18	15	20	19	18	32	154	19.3
3	Maubeuge Filles	14	14	14	12	16	15	16	24	125	15.6

The reigning 4-way world champion France Maubeuge finished the eight-round competition with a 22.8 average. The scores included a 41-pointer in round eight for a sequence of only random formations (H-B-N-D-C). According to Jerome David, there is a very good chance that this score will become the official new world record in 4-way: "The 42 points they did in 2002 was not officialised as a record because it was done during a French Cup and not at the French National Championship. Here we got it now."

However, David was not too excited with the results his team posted: "The jump was not clean, and we are not very proud of it. We should have done more than 45 on it." The 22.8 meet average was supported by the record jump in round eight. David gave the NSL News a short evaluation of the current situation after the Malevsky Cup 2004 and the French National Championship 2004, and before the World Meet in Croatia:

"It was a close race at the Malevsky Cup, very useful for Croatia. I am sad to note that Block 12 (Zipper - Star) is not yet consistently and correctly judged, which makes things like a gamble and leaves teams without safe answers. My analysis after Russia is that Majik now leads with two victories (World Cup 2002 and 2004) in front of our team. This pushes Majik as the favorite team for Croatia, and gives us a good challenge to try to beat them for the first time. This is quite the same situation we had to deal with in 1999 when Airspeed was reigning the world since 1994. It is a position we like. We will have less pressure than Majik who will play for all their life in this meet."

The French National Championship 2004 also offered information how far the French national team of the Women's Class has advanced between the Mondial 2003 and today. The "Maubeuge Filles" finished in third place with a 15.6 average. The same team had placed in fifth position with a 14.6 average at the Mondial 2003. Jerome David mentioned that the team "...lost 7 points in a single round." He expects his Women's Class team between a 17.0 and 18.5 average in Croatia: "The goal is to reach the 3rd place, but I hope they can win, which would be a good surprise after just two years of training."

The 8-way teams completed only seven rounds. Similar to the current situation in Russia, France has now two 8-way teams on world class medal level. Hautes Alpes is not the national 8-way team. It was formed after the Mondial 2003 with former 8-way members of the 1995, 1999 and 2003 teams. They do not train a lot together and compete just for the fun of competition. All members (Ferre, Grisoni, Losantos, Zunino, Ars, Negrier, Vazille, Auvray) already retired after many years of training and competition with the French 8-way teams. Hautes Alpes won the national championship after a very close race with LaPalisse Maubeuge, which is the new national 8-way team and will compete in Croatia for world meet medals (Sarrazin, Bernier, Martin, Leon, Rollett, Degen, Sorlin, Perin). Hautes Alpes' 19.3 average is the highest 8-way average in the world this year so far.

French Championship 2004		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Av.
Rank	Teams - 8way	15-10-2	O-M-7-H	F-11-12	C-16-A-K	20-N-22	21-17-D	8-B-18	Total	Av.
1	Hautes Alpes	17	16	23	24	21	17	17	135	19.3
2	LaPalisse Maubeuge	17	17	22	24	20	16	13	129	18.4

The LaPalisse Maubeuge members used to be in the French "B Team" of 2003, which was selected during the 2000 season in the "Collectif Espoir" group project. They have done two years of 4-way together (6th and 7th place at the World Cup in 2002). LaPalise Maubeuge is now the new "young" national team, and their goal is to win the 8-way sword in 2006. France has never won gold medals in the 8-way event to date. The team leader is Manu Sarrazin who was already member of the previous 2003 team.

Jerome David is happy with the development of the new 8-way team: "It was a wonderful thing to see both teams having such a tough competition. That's the first time we had such a race in France in the 8-way event." He sees his 8-way team in the same position as the Women's Class 4-way team. The 8-way team should medal and could win.

The first day of competition at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2004 in Croatia is scheduled for September 18. The NSL News will be on competition site and offer the usual services and updates.