posted Mar 11th, 2019 - The indoor winter season in most parts of the skydiving world concludes this year with the FAI Indoor World Meet at Weembi Lille in the third week of April. However, the annual World Challenge has been the unofficial indoor world championship for over a decade, and it will take place once again at Twinwoods Adventure in Bedford at the beginning of next month.

It's always been the same first weekend of April when the World Challenge attracted the largest field of 4-way teams in the history of the sport to Bedford. The participation has not been limited exclusively to one national team for each country as at the FAI world meets, or to four teams per nation at world cups.

The event has always been open to any 4-way team, and recently also to 8-way teams, who wanted to experience international 4-way competition and meet the best teams in the world up close and personal.

The first update with the NSL Power Rankings is already showing AAA Class teams from ten different countries, and the list is far from being complete at this point in time.

The World Challenge has also been offering the three additional categories (AA - A - Rookie) which allow the teams on a lower experience level to compete at the same event together with the best 4-way teams in the world.

World Challenge 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Airheads	CH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	ISR FireFlash	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Odin Parachute Systems	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	Chimera	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	NFTO	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Tenanine	MR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	Ayro	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Aladeen	HU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	Alakran	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	Blackjack	FI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	Stardust	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	Tempo	FI	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	Pajama Pumas	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
18	FlyPonots	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	Koloncok	HU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	Falco	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
21	Nova	CH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
22	Weembi Unicorns	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Currently registered national teams in yellow

This year, the World Challenge serves the same purposes as in the past decade, while the 2019 schedule has created a special situation at the same time. FAI/IPC scheduled the indoor world meet with a 1-week break after the World Challenge, and the national teams have the unique opportunity of a most serious test in Bedford.

In fact, the timing and the logistics both could be perfect. The teams that compete at both events would start with the World Challenge in a 16-foot flying chamber, which matches almost exactly the available space at Weembi Lille.

All previous FAI/IPC indoor world meets and world cups have taken place in 14-foot flying chambers, and it is the first time that all teams will be able to have the same space available that they are used to at the World Challenge. This year's event in Bedford will be a very realistic test for the next ten meet rounds after the 1-week break.

In fact, the participating teams at both events will be able to make the last adjustments after the 10-round test at the World Challenge. The 1-week break between the two meets is enough time for a few training sessions, either in Bedford or in Lille, and also enough time for resting.

The logistics of the meet double-pack could hardly be any better, as both hosting sites are not far away from each other. The travel time between Bedford and Lille is 1.5 hours by train.

It will be interesting to see how the different groups of teams will be performing at the indoor world meet. NMP PCH HayaBusa, Arizona Airspeed, Qatar Tigers, Airheads, NFTO, and a few other national teams have signed up for the World Challenge and will try to be as best prepared as possible with the balance between final meet practice, last adjustments in training and rest.

Weembi High Rollers will not compete at the World Challenge after attending each event since 2015 and will be the leader of the other group of national teams who are skipping the event in Bedford.

The World Challenge is also the British qualification event for the indoor world meet. ACM and Chimera will probably be the top contenders, while NFTO has no serious competition in 4-way Women and will compete for the UK delegation at Weembi Lille - after the previous scores for the ten rounds in Bedford...