posted Aug 8th, 2018 - The highest scores of the four national championships (Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, France) that took place last week were posted in Vichy, France.

It was not only once again the next showdown between the French national teams in 4-way Open (Aerodyne Realfly) and 4-way Women (Aerodyne Weembi) that generated world class scores. Both national B-teams (Espoir Saumur Weembi - Espoir Weembi Lille) with their new lineups also finished with impressive scores.

However, the duel between Aerodyne Realfly and Aerodyne Weembi for the 4-way top spot in France was the highlight, as it came to a dramatic peak at the national championships last week.

It was the 7th time this year that both teams were facing each other, after three previous indoor and three outdoor meets. The 4-way Open Class team, with 4-way Women world champion of 2012 and 2014, Laurence Fugen, in the lineup, had won five of the six previous meets, and the 4-way Women team had the upper hand at the French Indoor Nationals 2018 on home turf at Weembi Lille.

French Nationals 2018		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open	E,G,10,2	9,Q,14	5,19,C	12,16,A	15,1,17	20,L,3	13,F,22	11,N,D,O	M,7,8	P,4,H,21	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Realfly	20	28	23	23	19	20	20	31	24	27	235	23.5
2	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	22	29	25	21	21	21	17	29	24	26	235	23.5
3	Espoir Saumur Weembi	16	21	16	16	15	15	15	20	18	21	173	17.3
4	Espoir Weembi Lille	16	20	16	15	13	13	15	21	18	19	166	16.6
5	Odin Parachute System	14	18	14	16	8	14	11	18	19	15	147	14.7
6	Airbivores Annecy Pamiers	12	14	11	9	8	9	9	12	14	15	113	11.3
7	ExponenCiel ASPU Maubeuge	8	14	6	5	7	8	9	11	11	11	90	9.0
8	Flyponots	8	11	0	8	6	6	4	10	12	9	74	7.4

Aerodyne Weembi won the French duel only once at an outdoor competition ever since both teams started with training and competition in 2015, the World Air Games 2015 in Dubai at the end of both team's first year together. It was part of a 3-win streak for the all-female lineup that included the Clash of Champions 2015 and the World Challenge 2016.

Aerodyne Weembi still won a few indoor meets over the Open Class team while never getting really close at the outdoor meets. This changed when both teams had to jump from Pilatus Porter at the June meet of the Coupe de France and NMP PCH HayaBusa's Dennis Praet filled Pamela Lissajoux's slot in Maubeuge. Aerodyne Weembi won the 10-round meet by two points.

The 4-way Women team was back with the complete lineup for the national championship last week, and the French teams exited from a Cessna Caravan this time, which is the jump plane at the FAI World Meet later this year in Australia.

The latest duel in Vichy eventually generated the most dramatic battle in the teams' history together.

Internal French 4-way Open vs. 4-way Women duel since 2015

The French national teams were tied only once before and did not need a tie-breaker when that happened at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2016. Aerodyne Realfly finished with a 27.9 average in 3rd place on the Open Class leaderboard of this event, while Aerodyne Weembi won the 4-way Women competition with the same meet average.

Both French national teams finished with the same total and average for the second time after last week's ten rounds in Vichy. However, this time they had their scoring numbers on the same French leaderboard, and the ten rounds included all the drama that a 4-way competition could generate.

The 4-way Women team won the first three rounds last week and were three points ahead after Round 4 at the end of the first meet day. They even added three more points to the lead in the next two rounds before the 4-way Open Class team woke up and won the last four rounds consecutively. Aerodyne Weembi was still one point ahead going into Round 10, and Aerodyne Realfly tied the total in the very last minute.

This time, both teams needed a tie-breaker, and the highest score of the meet was the winner. It was the 31-pointer in Round 8 that eventually separated the two teams, and Aerodyne Realfly fended off the challenge by the French 4-way Women team one more time...