posted Jun 12th, 2005 - The NSL News story on June 6 offered a preview of the 8-way event at this year's Malevsky Memorial Cup. The NSL News looked back at the world meets in 2003 and 2004 to see how the 8-way event may turn out next month in Russia. The top five teams of the last year's world meet in Croatia have all signed up for the Malevsky Cup 2005.

The NSL News story concluded that France will most likely be one of the top contenders in the 8-way event. However, this conclusion was based on the assumption that the French 8-way team will continue with the same line-up as in 2004. The NSL News wanted to make sure to have the facts together properly and asked French national coach, Jerome David, for confirmation.

David responded quickly and kindly provided the NSL News with a complete update on the current situation of the Formation Skydiving national teams in France. David will travel with his teams to Russia and promised to take some more time for the NSL News. First of all, he confirmed the consistency of the 8-way line-up:

"Yes, both 8-way and 4-way female teams are the same – that’s the third year together for the girls and the second for the 8-way. Both goals are gold medals at the European championships."

David is still modest with his goals. The Malevsky Memorial Cup includes the official "2005 Open European Championship of Formation Skydiving". Setting the team goals only related to the European Championship avoids the pressure of outscoring the US teams. However, the French 8-way and 4-way Female teams both still have to beat the Russian teams to win the European gold medals.

The NSL News was also interested in the training efforts and the progression of the French teams between Croatia 2004 and the trip to Russia. David explained:

"The 8-way did 500 jumps and the girls 300 – most of them from Twin Otter. Both teams are not completely ready since their final goal is the next WC (World Championship) 2006 in Germany. Two girls were grounded for a few weeks because of injuries, they are not at their best yet."

The performance of the French 4-way Female team was the biggest surprise at the world meet in Croatia 2004. The US team Synchronicity was expected to win the gold medals. The Italian team Kewara seemed to have great chances for silver medals, however, things turned out very differently in September 2004.

Kewara ended up battling for bronze medals with the Russian Ladybirds and left Croatia empty-handed. The Ladybirds were the happy and proud bronze medalists, while the silver medals went surprisingly to the young and new French team. The French ladies even forced the US team Synchronicity to stay focused.

France staid very close to USA throughout the entire 10-round meet and finished with a 16.4 average in Croatia. Synchronicity never managed to win a round by more than one point except in round ten. Both teams tied their scores in six of the ten rounds. The last round of all 4-way Female teams in Croatia 2004 can still be viewed by navigating to the meet scores in the NSL Archives 2004.

France had finished with a 14.6 average in fifth position at the world meet 2003 in France. The 16.4 average in Croatia was a significant increase of the performance level, and the Malevsky Memorial Cup 2005 will show where the same French team is positioned at the moment. The NSL News will soon introduce the rest of the field in the 4-way Female event.

French national coach Jerome David had more information for the NSL News. A French team "Mandelieu-Noene" is registered for the Malevsky Cup 2005, and the NSL News was interested in news of the French situation in the 4-way Open event. David had also surprising news as of this FS event, which used to be very successful for France in the past:

"Mandelieu-Noene is not a national team and will not represent France – they will be guests in Russia. This team is composed of two guys from the 8-way team of 1989-1995, Hautes Alpes, with two weekend skydivers. Their average should not be over 15 to 16. France will not register any national 4-way Open teams for the 2005-2006 cycle for internal reasons. We will put all our efforts into the 8-way and the female 4-way. Parallel, we also actually work with five 4-way B-teams to get them ready for 2008."

The NSL News wanted to know why other good teams cannot be registered as French national teams. David explained that the French support system works in a different way:

"The French strategy is to either register teams that can reach for a medal or national B-teams, composed of very young skydivers, to let them get familiar with international meets. Mandelieu-Noene doesn’t fulfill any of those conditions. At the World Cup 2005 in Eloy, one B-team will be registered as a French 4-way Open team but will finance the meet on its own expenses. Only 8-way and 4-way Female will be national A-teams in 2005 and 2006."

Finally, the NSL News was asking for David's feedback on the revised penalty rules.

"I like the new rules, and I promoted them. Especially, I like to have the same value for a team's mistake or a videographer's mistake. With the previous penalty rules, in some situations, judges had some difficulties to choose between an NJ or a bust. Now, they do not even have to think about that. I don't think that teams will change the way they have already performed with this new system. With the old and the new rules both, the goal is to avoid mistakes and go as fast as you can together."

The NSL News will use the opportunity of the Malevsky Cup 2005 to get more updates, information and comments from the French national coach.