posted Jul 19th, 2019 - The recent NSL Live Talk with Gary Smith covered the situation after the first official scores of the new French national teams in 4-way Open and 4-way Women at the Coupe de France competition earlier this month.

Gary Smith agreed that the Qatar Tigers have become a very strong contender for the country's first FAI medals. The combination of the French priority on 8-way competition and the double duties for the two national 4-way teams, versus the exclusive focus on 4-way by the Qatar Tigers will most likely have an impact on the battle for bronze medals in Tanay 2020.

France is the defending bronze medalist in 4-way Open, and the Qatar Tigers had finished in 4th place at the FAI World Meet 2018. Gary Smith has been coaching the Qatar Tigers since the beginning of the year.

The NSL Live Talk with Gary Smith included the situation in 4-way Women, where France won the gold medals in Australia 2018. He has also been coaching the British national 4-way team NFTO throughout the FAI Indoor World Meet, where NFTO finished two points behind France in 2nd place.

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FAI Indoor World Meet 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		M,K,D,14	Q,4,5	P,E,9,15	3,N,G,2	6,1,8	F,12,11	13,22,J	H,L,B,18	O,20,A,17	21,7,19	Total	Avg
1	Nephtys Weembi	FR	34	27	35	25	23	25	23	33	31	24	280	28.0
2	NFTO	UK	34	26	34	28	23	24	24	34	28	23	278	27.8
3	XPG4	US	34	26	33	24	21	24	24	28	25	23	262	26.2
4	Bubble Hubble	RU	29	25	33	24	22	23	22	31	25	21	255	25.5
5	China	CN	31	26	31	22	23	24	22	30	22	23	254	25.4
6	Team X	SE	26	25	28	24	20	22	23	28	24	23	243	24.3
7	No Mercy	PL	29	22	25	21	19	17	21	23	20	22	219	21.9
8	Skynamite	DE	28	20	26	20	17	17	19	26	18	19	210	21.0
9	Voss Vind Girls	NO	27	22	24	18	18	19	20	23	19	19	209	20.9

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Weembi High Rollers and NFTO at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019 at Weembi Lille

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Gary Smith mentioned during the live conversation earlier this week that he is not officially working with NFTO any longer and continues only with NMP PCH HayaBusa and Qatar Tigers. Roy Janssen has taken over the coaching job with NFTO, while Gary Smith still keeps in touch with the team.

NFTO's new coaching commitment creates an interesting situation between the two teams and coach Roy Janssen. NFTO has become a serious indoor and outdoor challenger, even though the French national team in 4-way Women was still far ahead (257 - 202) at the world meet in Australia last year.

Roy Janssen is not only coaching. He was also a founding member of the Weembi High Rollers, who have been putting pressure on NMP PCH HayaBusa at indoor meets since the team project was launched in 2015.

In fact, the Weembi High Rollers are the only team in the world who managed to outscore NMP PCH HayaBusa at any indoor or outdoor meet since December 2014, when Canada's national team Evolution won the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship, with HayaBusa finishing in 2nd place.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	Aerodyne Weembi Girls	FR	29	20	24	22	25	56	23	18	22	18	257	25.7
2	NFTO	UK	20	15	22	19	18	38	18	17	19	16	202	20.2
3	Team X	SE	17	10	18	16	14	36	15	13	18	12	169	16.9
4	Phoenix XP	US	17	12	17	14	15	37	16	12	14	13	167	16.7
4	Boomerang Betty	AU	19	11	18	14	15	32	15	13	17	13	167	16.7
6	Fuzion Voltige	CA	17	9	18	14	15	34	14	13	14	13	161	16.1
7	Skynamite	DE	19	12	16	14	14	27	13	12	15	12	154	15.4

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Aerodyne Weembi Girls and NFTO at the FAI outdoor World Meet 2018

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The interesting situation in 4-way Women is the fact that two of Roy Janssen's Weembi High Rollers team mates at the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018, Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis, are the defending outdoor world champions in 4-way Women. They are back in the French lineup until the FAI World Meet 2020 in Tanay and will try to win the gold medals once again in 4-way Women, and then win gold in 8-way, as well.

Roy Janssen was still competing together with Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis for the Weembi High Rollers at three indoor meets this year. They finished 2nd behind NMP PCH HayaBusa at the Wind Games 2019 and in the 4-way Open Class competition of the FAI Indoor World Meet.

NFTO competed at most of the same events since January 2018, when Roy Janssen and Julien Degen invited Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis to join the Weembi High Rollers and fill the two open slots after Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier stepped back at the end of the 2017 season.

Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis will be busy with outdoor training and competition until Tanay 2020, and the plans for the near future of the Weembi High Rollers indoor team are unknown. However, Roy Janssen and Sophia Pecout and Christine Malnis will now be on opposite sides for a while, and NFTO will try to get as much support as possible from their new coach who knows half of the French national team in 4-way Women very well...