posted Sep 12th, 2003 - The 8-way teams completed three rounds on a beautiful day and are done for today. They will enjoy the time off, at least the U.S. team, Russia and half of the French 8-way team. France Maubeuge's 4-way team still has to work the whole afternoon. The Golden Knights are waiting for them to show a weakness in the 4-way event. And this is one of the top stories of the World Meet 2003: how can France deal with the challenge of competing in both events?Let's complete today's 8-way story first of all. Round six would be very important for the French team. After the terrible start this morning they recovered very well and came back with a great round five where they won back two points from Airspeed. However, Russia still beat France even in round six and extended their lead to seven points. Another great performance for France in round seven could still give the team confidence and hope for the remaining four rounds. The French 8-way team had a good round and tied Airspeed with 20 points. And then came Russia once again after a long break on the Omniskore screen and hit the French hopes with another blow and 21 points in time. Russia is now eight points ahead of France and three points ahead of Airspeed. Does France still have a chance to come back? Airspeed is surely still in contention for the first place, and Russia will feel the heat tomorrow. Can Russia hold on to the three-point lead?

It might become even more difficult for the French camp if the 8-way is not doing that well. How much will it bother the 4-way performance? It is a mental game, the mind can do strange things to the athlete's performance. How much energy can the four French 4-way competitors invest into the 8-way if the situation becomes hopeless in this event? The 8-way team has only one position in mind, and that is the first place. The French 4-way team also has to spend the whole day at the competition site. And the days are getting very long when competing in both events. There is simply no way that the meet management would have a chance to make it any easier for their home team.

Golden Knights team captain John Hoover came up with another interesting thought as of the special French situation. The first day of the competition went according to the planned schedule, good weather, two rounds in 8-way, one round in 4-way. The French 8-way team had good jumps in the morning. The members of the French 4-way team were warmed up and surely in good spirits for the afternoon event in 4-way. And they performed very well on the first day of the competition with a pace that was slightly faster than the one of the Golden Knights. And the situation was the same on the second day of the meet.

Yesterday, on the third day of the meet, the conditions were different. The whole French camp had to be on the competition site for 8-way in the morning. But there was no jumping due to the bad weather. 8-way was finally canceled, and the 4-way teams still had to wait until the late afternoon before they could get in the air. It might be coincidence, however, the French performance in 4-way was not as dominating as it was in the first two rounds. Did the meet conditions have an influence on the French performance level? How could it be today? The 8-way team made three jumps in the morning, so the 4-way members are warmed up. But the 8-way team fell almost hopelessly behind. Can this be a factor in the mental game? We will have answers for these questions soon. 4-way is scheduled for the afternoon.