posted Nov 30th, 2015 - The FAI/IPC sanctioned events usually require the creation of a combined leaderboard to compare the scores of the teams in 4-way Women with the scores of the 4-way Open Class teams. At least two of the female top teams are orienting themselves and their performance and scoring levels with the help of the 4-way Open Class leaderboards, the Golden Knights and the French FLY-IN Girls.

The combined AAA Class leaderboard of the Sun Path Products NSL News is showing the Golden Knights in 2nd place at the 1st FAI World Indoor Skydiving Championships, where the French FLY-IN Girls finished in 6th place.

Both 4-way Women teams would have made the first and the second cut and made it to the final round in the 4-way Open Class competition at the Hurricane Factory.

FAI World Indoor 2015			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		22,F,20	16,B,14	3,H,4	L,K,7,C	10,D,6	15,A,Q,M	5,8,P	O,21,11	18,G,2	12,9,N	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	29	30	30	43	28	36	30	26	29	30	311	31.1
2	Golden Knights	US	25(-1)	28	29	41	24(-1)	40(-1)	28	26(-1)	24	29	294(-4)	29.4
3	Black Cat	RU	21	26	27	34	23	39	28	27	26	30	281	28.1
4	FLY-IN	FR	24	26	21	37	23	35	24	23	23	26	262	26.2
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	23	24	25	33	23	35	28	23	21	25	260	26.0
6	French FLY-IN Girls	FR	23(-2)	26	19(-3)	33(-1)	24	31(-2)	25	23(-1)	21(-1)	27	252(-10)	25.2
7	Gryttjom Volo	SE	20	21	22	32	21	32	23	22	21	22	236	23.6
8	Bad Boys	CZ	19	20	23	32	21	31	23	23	20	22	234	23.4

The field of teams was significantly stronger at the Clash of Champions, and the 27.7 average of the Golden Knights won only the 4th place at Inflight Dubai last week.

The French FLY-IN Girls went the other direction and moved up from the 6th place on the combined leaderboard in Prague to the 5th place in Dubai, despite the stronger field.

The manipulation of the two different leaderboards was not necessary at the Clash of Champions, where Event Coordinator and Chief Judge Pete Allum offered only one AAA Class leaderboard for the 4-way teams. The Sun Path Products NSL News still reversed the manipulation procedure to feature only the ongoing battle between the world's two best teams in 4-way Women, who will be facing each other again next week at the World Air Games, for the first time with the new French lineup at an outdoor competition.

Clash of Champions 2015			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		J,13,8	K,20,5	9,21,19	C,3,6	7,O,15	A,18,1	2,H,P,D	16,L,11	E,N,10,B	12,Q,F,22	Total	Avg
4	Golden Knights	US	24(-1)	29	28(-1)	27(-1)	30(-2)	27	33(-2)	25	31(-2)	23(-3)	277(-12)	27.7
5	FLY-IN Women	FR	23(-1)	26(-1)	28(-1)	25	28(-1)	24	35	24	31(-2)	25(-2)	269(-8)	26.9

The World Air Games are sanctioned by FAI/IPC, and the 4-way teams will once again be separated by gender, even though female 4-way competitors are allowed to compete in the Open Class, as well. Golden Knights and French FLY-IN Girls will meet each other directly for the third time within seven weeks.

The coaches of both teams, Solly Williams (Golden Knights) and Mathieu Bernier (French FLY-IN Girls), did not have a clear answer why both teams were so much closer to each other in Dubai, compared to the world indoor meet in Prague. The French team members and Mathieu Bernier both said that nothing really happened between the two events.

Fact is that there was a 42-point difference between the same two teams after ten rounds at the end of October, which was down to eight points last week, disregarding the point deductions for infringements. The World Air Games will bring the Golden Knights and the French FLY-IN Girls together for an outdoor competition. The Golden Knights are coming to Dubai with the 22.4 average at the USPA Nationals 2015, while the French Girls had posted a 21.3 average at the FAI World Cup 2015. The battle for the FAI/IPC gold medals in 2016 will continue next week...