posted Feb 17th, 2010 - The French national teams in the 4-way Open Class, Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge, and in the female category, Aerokart Deep Blue, have officially completed their registration for the World Challenge 2010, as the list of teams on the event page shows. This means that it is a fact that the three medal winners of the Open Class at the World Meet 2008, Arizona Airspeed, Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge and Hayabusa Defence, will have a rematch at the beginning of April in Bedford.

The same three teams competed already at the Dubai Championship in January, where the French team had to replace Mathieu Bernier with alternate and coach Marin Ferre. Maubeuge will be back with the original lineup at the World Challenge after competing at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010.

There is only one team member of all three teams who did not compete at the World Meet 2008 in France. However, Hayabusa's new Point, Waedong So, has already trained and competed with the Belgian national team for a whole year.

The latest update of the registered teams for this year's most popular indoor competition added several new teams to the field. The NSL News story on 8 February 2010 already explained how exciting it will be to watch the top contenders in the female 4-way category at the upcoming two high-profile events.

Aerokart Deep Blue will first take on the reigning world champions from the United Kingdom, Team Bodyflight, on their home turf at the indoor competition in Bedford. Then the French team will travel to Florida and compete with the US national team, Spaceland Blue, on American soil. Eventually, all three teams will go for the three sets of medals at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 in Russia.

The German all-female ISB Air lineup, with three former Incognito Leutkirch members, will challenge the French and the UK top contenders at the World Challenge, which will show whether any other all-female team may have a chance this year to join the race for medal positions in Russia. The other German lineup, the Chicas, will represent the country at the World Meet.

Aerodyne Cypres Maubeuge and Aerokart Deep Blue are not the only French teams in Bedford this year. Members of the French national 8-way team joined forces with French B-Team members already last year and competed at the World Challenge 2009 and the World Cup 2009 in the Czech Republic.

Clement Martin-Saint-Leon and Emmanuel Sarrazin are both 8-way world champions of 2006 and 2008. They have been in charge to guide Arnaud Mille and Julien Olek to the world's top level of 4-way and 8-way competition.

Arnaud Mille and Julien Olek are both new 8-way members of the current French national lineup. They continued to also sharpen their skills in 4-way last year. Almost exactly the same lineup that already competed at the World Challenge 2009 will also compete in April this year.

The team name is different this year, and Julien Olek is back in the lineup. The original Aerokart Pamiers lineup of 2009 has now signed up for the World Challenge 2010 as Aerokart PCs. Aerokart Pamiers Maubeuge had finished in 9th place, tied with Kaktus Hunter, and with a 23.9 average.

Then 8-way coach Erwan Pouliquen filled the Pamiers slot at the World Cup 2009 when Julien Olek saved his energy for the 8-way competition. He was still recovering from a broken leg injury when he competed in the Czech Republic.

Julien Olek is now back in full action in both events. 8-way training and competition has still high priority. However, the Aerokart Pamiers/PC members enjoy their time together in 4-way, as well, and it is the only time when former 8-way team captain Emmanuel "Manu" Sarrazin can have some competition fun. Clement Martin-Saint-Leon is the new team captain of the French 8-way world champions.