posted May 4th, 2016 - The story of the Mondial 2016 bronze medals continues with the team that is currently on top in the poll results, the French national Open Class team.

The defending bronze medalist from Canada, Evolution, is only in 3rd place after the first Sun Path Products NSL News article covering this topic. Satori XL is considered not only an underdog for bronze medals so far. It seems like the audience does not even agree with the British national team as a bronze medal contender. The Qatar Tigers are the actual underdog.

There is also some hope that more teams might be involved in the battle for the expected gold medals between NMP PCH HayaBusa and Arizona Airspeed, and Evolution's 3rd place performance at the World Meet 2014 in Prostejov is probably the foundation for such thoughts, as the Canadians finished only four points behind Airspeed after ten rounds. However, realistically there is only the U.S. team that could seriously challenge the Belgian indoor and outdoor world champions.

FAI World Meet 2014			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		E,3,C,5	F,6,D,21	19,H,2	M,4,1	O,14,A,P	8,J,16	7,11,12	22,20,15	17,G,18	13,B,9	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH HayaBusa	BE	32	29	25	25	33	25	22	18	26	29	264	26.4
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	31	27	25	24	31	23	22	17	24	29	253	25.3
3	Evolution	CA	31	28	24	22	28	23	20	21	25	27	249	24.9
4	VoltR	FR	24	26	18	23	26	20	20	13	24	21	215	21.5
5	Barkli	RU	24	23	20	22	25	21	19	16	18	26	214	21.4
6	Dubai Asaar Black	AE	18	20	17	17	20	14	15	13	17	20	171	17.1

The chances that France could finish in 3rd place are confirmed by the audience, and there is also a very solid foundation for this vote. France has only won gold or silver medals at the 16 FAI World Championships of Formation Skydiving since 1985, with four exceptions (1985, 2006, 2012, 2014).

The French national Open Class teams won bronze medals in 1985, 2006 and 2012. The World Meet 2014 in Prostejov was the first time in the modern history of 4-way competition that the French delegation left empty-handed in the 4-way Open Class category.

The downslide from gold in 2010 to bronze in 2012 and nothing at all in 2014 was too much for the French delegation, and there was a dramatic change in strategy after the disappointing 4th place in Prostejov.

Jeremie Rollett was still the national coach after the world meet, and he assigned Marin Ferre, 4-way world champion of 1999 and 2003, back to the coaching job for the 4-way Open Class team. Marin Ferre had guided the legendary 2010 lineup (Julien Degen, Jeremie Rollett, Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier) to the gold medals in Menzelinsk. Then he was assigned to the French teams in 4-way Women and won two more gold medals in 2012 and 2014.

Only one team member of the 2014 lineup, Damien Gouriou, was

selected for the new FLY-IN lineup, and Jeremie Rollett also "stole" Laurence Herve from the 4-way Women world champion team, the French Girls. She became the first female 4-way competitor in a French 4-way Open Class national team.

Jeremie Rollett and his national assistant coaches then selected Charles Rommel and Kevin Mansion to complete the new 4-way Open Class lineup. They were both members of the French national 8-way team in 2013 and 2014, which went through the same dramatic changes after the bronze medals in Prostejov.

World Challenge 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open National Teams		P,2,10	8,F,15	G,14,17	L,H,E,13	M,7,O,1	16,21,11	N,D,4,9	18,20,A	Q,19,3	C,K,B,22	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	27	31	28	39	35	25	38	30	31	36	320	32.0
2	FLY-IN France	FR	24	26	26	34	32	23	33	23	27	28	276	27.6
3	Black Cat	RU	21	26	25	33	31	22	33	25	26	33	275	27.5
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	22	26	25	31	34	23	33	23	27	31	275	27.5
5	Satori XL	UK	23	25	22	30	29	20	33	24	24	28	258	25.8

The combination of the new and very young lineup and Marin Ferre's "golden coaching hands" have been showing impressive results after the first year of working together.

The quick progression and the French desire to come back with vengeance in the 4-way Open Class event may explain why France is currently in the poll's top spot of the five teams in the race for the bronze medals.

FLY-IN France finished in 3rd place at the World Challenge 2016 where only Arizona Airspeed and Evolution did not attend of the seven potential medal contenders at the Mondial 2016. The French FLY-IN Girls in 2nd place will not be on the same leaderboard at the world meet.

The new French 4-way Open Class team still has to follow up with outdoor results of the same quality. The 20.9 average at the World Air Games 2015 will not be enough to win a medal at the Mondial 2016. The internal French race with the 4-way Women team will be helpful to push both teams upward. The poll is open again for new and different voting...