posted Nov 1st, 2006 - The NSL News has focused for quite a while on the activities in the USA, and it is time for some international updates. French national coach Jerome David recently provided information from France. The NSL News was interested in the situation after the World Meet 2006.

The FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2006 in Germany was very successful for the European country. The French 8-way team won the gold medals for the first time in the history of Formation Skydiving competition. The 4-way team of the Open Class won silver medals, which were not really expected in the French headquarters.

The NSL News story on July 19 explained the situation of the French national 4-way team. The French "3-week package" turned out to be worth the efforts after winning the silver medals in Germany and $10,000 at the Malevsky Cup 2006.

Only the French 4-way team in the female category did not live up to the expectations. The silver medals in Germany were disappointing. The French ladies were considered to be the top challenger for the gold medals, and the team ended up far behind the British team Airkix in second place.

Jerome David explained in an interview last year that the last step in the selection process of the next French generation of A-Teams in 4-way Open, 4-way Women and 8-way will take place after the World Meet 2006 in Germany. The current A-Team members (8-way, 4-way Women) and the 14 members of the B-Teams will all be candidates for the new three A-Teams.

Everything is possible at selection time. Jerome David may even pick current 8-way members for the next 4-way team. All members of the A-Teams and the B-Teams are training and competing to be the best they can be before their talent will be put into a specific team at the end of the 2006 season.

The selection was not completed when Jerome David provided the last update. He commented mostly the events at the World Meet 2006 in Germany from the French perspective, and he was satisfied with the results:

"Everybody here in France was very excited about our 8-way performance - the first gold medals in our history. Last weekend, the sword was presented to our supporters in Maubeuge, the home DZ of the team. It was a big party, and the team organized big ways. Manu Sarrazin and his team are heroes here.

We are also very happy about the two silver medals in 4-way, especially the one in the 4-way Open Class, which was a good surprise after only a few training jumps and a new team member in the line-up. For the first time in our system, this team was selected the American Way: the winner of the French Nationals 2006.

This new system for the 4-way Open qualification allowed us to focus on both 8-way and 4-way Women for two whole years. However, the result of our 4-way Women's team was a disappointment because the goal was gold. Congratulations to my old friend Dan BC who beat me one more time..."

The second place of the French ladies still contributed to the overall results of all three Formation Skydiving events. IPC's unofficial Patrick de Gayardon Trophy goes to the nation's delegation with the best combined rankings of 4-way Open, 8-way Open and 4-way Women. It was also the first time in history that France won this award. Jerome David had the exact results for the Patrick de Gayardon Trophy available:

"Despite my disappointment for the girls' results, I'm happy because it was also the first time in our history that France became the first nation at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving. We were tied with the USA four times when there was only 8-way and 4-way Open Class competition (1987 - 1989 - 1991 - 1993). This year, following IPC's ranking system for the Patrick de Gayardon Trophy, the unofficial overall ranking in Formation Skydiving is: FRA = 14 points(6 + 4 + 4) / USA = 10 points (4 + 6) / GB = 6 points (6) / RUS = 4 points (2 + 2) / ITA = 2 points (2)."

Finally, Jerome David confirmed that the new line-ups have not been formed yet: "Everything is still open on the table - no decisions have been made yet as of our next strategy for the world meet in 2008, but we are working on it."

The French team manager and national coach did not know how much he will still be involved in the future: "I don't know yet if I continue. I will decide about that next month. If I continue, it will be in the manager position only. I've already decided and declared before the world meet in Gera that I will stop coaching technically in the future. It is a position I cannot afford doing any longer parallel with the general management of the teams."

The NSL News will follow up as soon as the selection process in France has been completed.