posted Aug 14th, 2017 - It happened as it it probably had to be expected.

The award ceremony of the FAI World Cup 2017 was weathered out just as much as a significant part of the competition was, and the participants woke up on Sunday morning to fine meet weather. The conditions on Monday were even better.

However, there was a great atmosphere at the award ceremony, despite the poor weather conditions and the lowest number of completed rounds at a world meet or world cup in history. The participants at these top events are mostly experienced competitors who are well aware of the fact that weather is a meet factor out of the host's control area.

NMP PCH HayaBusa won the 4-way gold medals with the 1-point difference after Round 4. A few teams, including SDC Rhythm XP, were not able to get in the air for Round 5 on Saturday, and HayaBusa's best performance of the meet in Round 5 did not count.

The 28-pointer would have added five points to the lead. RealFly-Sion took the silver medals to France and will remember that they were able to keep up with the 4-way world champions throughout the first four rounds.

FAI World Cup 2017			1	2	3	4	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		L,O,F,K,11	C,3,7	13,2,G	1,17,20	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	35(-1)	26(-1)	21	20(-1)	102	25.5
2	RealFly-Sion	FR	35	26(-1)	20	20(-1)	101	25.3
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	33	24	20	16(-2)	93	23.3
4	Black Cat	RU	26(-4)	24(-1)	17(-3)	18(-2)	85	21.3
5	bUSA Defiance	US	26(-1)	22	16	17	81	20.3
6	Airbus	DE	27(-1)	21	17	15	80	20.0
7	Espoir Saumur Weembi	FR	25(-2)	19(-2)	16	18	78	19.5
8	Papea Masculino	ES	26	19	12(-1)	14	71	17.8
8	ISR FireFlash	BE	24(-1)	18(-1)	14	15	71	17.8
8	Barguzin	RU	24(-1)	15(-3)	17	15	71	17.8
11	Airheads Realfly	CH	24	20	13(-1)	13	70	17.5
12	Ex3mo	IT	23(-1)	17	12	14	66	16.5
12	Espoir Maubeuge Weembi	FR	24	17	12(-1)	13(-1)	66	16.5
12	AtomiX YUU	DE	19(-2)	19	13	15	66	16.5
15	Chimera	UK	21(-1)	16(-1)	14(-1)	13	64	16.0
15	Kinetix	AU	22	17	13	12(-1)	64	16.0
17	Tanay Wolves	RU	22	16	14	11(-1)	63	15.8
18	Antimatter	UK	19	14(-1)	13	13	59	14.8
19	NeVa	DE	20	15	11	11(-1)	57	14.3
20	Out of the Blue	NL	18	14(-1)	12	12	56	14.0
21	Team C4	SE	17(-1)	14	12	11	54	13.5
22	Flyspot Sky4four	PL	18	14(-1)	9(-1)	11	52	13.0
22	Eros	UK	16	14	11(-1)	11	52	13.0
24	Aurora	SE	15(-3)	11(-1)	11	11	48	12.0
25	Airvengers	AT	16(-1)	12	10	9	47	11.8
26	Tyanno4us Rex	UK	11(-1)	11(-2)	8(-1)	10	40	10.0
26	Atmosfera G4	PT	12(-1)	10	9	9	40	10.0
28	Yingyang	UA	10(-2)	12	9	6(-2)	37	9.3
28	TNT	RO	13	11	6	7(-1)	37	9.3
30	Tulpar	TR	8(-2)	8	9	7	32	8.0
30	Cyprus	CY	12	9	6	5	32	8.0

NMP PCH HayaBusa's meet schedule is far from over, while the French national 4-way Open Class team may begin with the preparations for the 2018 season. The Belgians still have the USPA Nationals 2017 on the agenda, followed by the FAI Indoor World Meet in Montreal.

France has a different team at the indoor meet. The Weembi High Rollers will try once again to defeat the reigning indoor and outdoor world champions from Belgium.

The French Weembi Girls will travel to Canada, as well, after easily winning the outdoor gold medals in 4-way Women. There was no serious competition for the French Weembi Girls in Saarlouis, while there is a question mark behind the British indoor potential at the indoor competition.

As it is in France, the United Kingdom has two different national teams in 4-way Women. NFTO will compete for the UK delegation in Australia 2018, while Volition visits SkyVenture Montreal this year. Volition might be able to challenge the French Weembi Girls if they perform once again below their average level.

FAI World Cup 2017			1	2	3	4	5	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		L,O,F,K,11	C,3,7	13,2,G	1,17,20	5,E,21	Total	Avg
1	French Weembi Girls	FR	29(-2)	17	19	16(-1)	23	104	20.8
2	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	24(-2)	20	16	15	16(-3)	91	18.2
2	Bubble Trouble	RU	23	20	16	14	18(-1)	91	18.2
4	No Mercy	PL	20	15	10(-1)	13	15	73	14.6
5	Meija	SE	19	14	10(-1)	12	14(-1)	69	13.8
6	PTW	UK	13	9(-1)	8	9	11	50	10.0
7	Kesshin	UK	10(-1)	7	6	6	9	38	7.6

SDC Rhythm XP was rewarded with FAI bronze medals for the long trip. bUSA Defiance won no medals and were still rewarded with enjoying the international meet atmosphere and leaving the desired 20-point benchmark behind. It was only a 4-round competition; however, these four rounds probably represented each team's current scoring average quite accurately.

Black Cat and SDC Rhythm XP completed exactly the same number of points withing the 140 seconds of working time. There was still no competition between the two teams, as the Russian national team left too many points in the judging room.

Airbus could not repeat the bronze medal finish of 2011, despite a higher average (20.0 - 19.6) of the new lineup in Saarlouis. Airbus will have no competition at the upcoming German Nationals 2017 and can also begin to make plans for 2018.

Belgium, France, USA and Russia each placed two teams in the Top 10. Germany (Airbus) and Spain (Papea) took the remaining two slots. 8th was the best placement in 4-way history for a Spanish team, and Belgium for the first time had a second team in the Top 10 with ISR FireFlash.