posted Apr 5th, 2006 - The NSL News mentioned yesterday that "there are rumors that three Maubeuge members of 2003 have put together a very strong line-up for this year's World Meet in Germany". The NSL News also promised to look for more information and contacted the French national coach Jerome David.

As usual, the NSL News received answers to the request for information from France without delay. Jerome David responded quickly and confirmed that the three former 4-way world champions of France Maubeuge, Davide Moy, Erwan Pouliquen and Julien Losantos, have joined forces with Paul "Polo" Grisoni.

However, national coach Jerome David has not sanctioned this line-up as the national coach for the World Meet 2006. This is different compared to the situation of the French 8-way and 4-way Women teams, which are already assigned with the line-ups that will represent France this year.

The new situation was already explained by Jerome David earlier this year. The NSL News story on March 8 provided an update from France where the national coach mentioned that a French team will compete in Germany: "We will send one 4-way Open Class team to Germany. This will be the 4-way team that wins the French Nationals in Vannes at the end of July. I think that this team should be able to place between 3rd and 6th place in Germany."

Jerome David's expectations of the French team's placement must have changed by now. He surely cannot know at this point which team will win the 4-way competition at the French Nationals 2006. However, fact is that there will hardly be a team in France that can challenge this new line-up.

Davide Moy, Erwan Pouliquen and Julien Losantos won the 4-way gold medals with France Maubeuge at the Mondial 2003 in Gap, France, with a 22.9 average. The same three team members competed for another year with France Maubeuge and were stopped only by DeLand Majik at the Malevsky Cup 2004 and the World Meet 2004 in Croatia.

This line-up discontinued after the silver medals in 2004, and national coach Jerome David launched a new project to build the next official national 4-way team in the Open Class. Erwan Pouliquen became the technical coach for the current French national 8-way team and worked together with Jerome David.

Paul "Polo" Grisoni was a team member of the previous French 8-way team that took the third place at the Mondial 2003 and is known as one of the top competitors in France. He will surely fit in with the three former 4-way world champions. The NSL News tries to follow up with more information of the new French line-up.

France being back in the 4-way medal business changes the picture of the international 4-way competition this year, and it brings back together even more 4-way veterans of previous top teams in different line-ups. It will be an interesting aspect at the World Meet 2006 that DeLand Fire member Gary Smith is the only 4-way competitor in the world who has never lost a competition with the three old and new French 4-way competitors. He will have to prepare his new team to get ready for the new confrontation with the French team this year.

This new French line-up will also most likely become a contender for the gold medals and increase the group of medal contenders by one more nation. USA, France, Russia and Italy might be closer together in a 4-team race for the gold medals than any other group of that size ever before in the history of Formation Skydiving competition.

This situation will also make it more difficult for the underdogs from Belgium and Norway. The NSL News will follow up with more evaluations of the international situation and feedback from other top competitors.