posted May 31st, 2023 - The most improved teams in 4-way Women at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023 finished in the lower half of the leaderboard, disregarding the world-class performances of the French Nephtys and XPG4 in the top spots.

The indoor lineup of the French national team in 4-way Women was not the same as ever before. In fact, national coach Mathieu Bernier had managed to put this unique lineup together just a few months before Round 1 at the Hurricane Factory Tatralandia in Slovakia.

XPG4 had more consistency in their lineup for the event, after spending the entire 2022 season together. Jeana Billings just helped out for a few months when Shannon Catalano did not continue, and the U.S. team finished with a new team record average, even after the impact of the unusual re-flight of Round 7.

Considering the scoring and performance level of XPG4 and the other medal contenders, even the most improved teams at the bottom of the leaderboard would have to leave the honor of the most improved team to the silver medalists of XPG4. It is naturally much more challenging to increase the scoring average for any team at the top level.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		E,14,3		K,F,22,17		O,7,5		N,2,18		L,P,12,15		M,10,D,H		16,9,C		1,G,J,8		4,Q,21		6,20,A		Total	Avg
1	France 4-way Women	FR	24	-2	30	-1	34	-1	22	-1	27		36		34	-1	27		25		26		285	28.5
2	XPG4	US	25		28	-1	33		25		25	-2	36		29	-3	24	-2	26		25	-2	276	27.6
3	NFTO	UK	25	-1	29		30	-2	20	-3	22	-3	32		34	-1	27	-1	23	-2	26		268	26.8
4	HF Cubs	CZ	22	-2	25	-3	33		23	-1	19	-5	31	-1	33	-1	25	-3	23	-4	24	-2	258	25.8
5	Piteraq	DE	22		19	-2	25		19		20		27		24		20		21		21		218	21.8
6	Airdrops	CH	18	-1	19	-2	23		13	-3	19		24		22	-1	19		21		16	-4	194	19.4
7	Windabona Angels Chicas	ES	18		16	-1	20	-1	16	-1	16	-1	22		16	-4	16	-1	18		17	-1	175	17.5
8	Fire Phoenix	IT	17		17	-1	20		14		14	-2	20	-2	16	-2	14	-1	16		16		164	16.4
9	Kiss My Grips	SK	13	-1	14	-2	19		14		12		19		16	-3	16	-1	16		13	-2	152	15.2

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Windabona Angels Chicas - Fire Phoenix - Kiss My Grips at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2023, video footage courtesy of FAI/InTime

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The 4-way Women lineup of the Spanish Windabona Angels (Chicas), Fire Phoenix from Italy and Kiss My Grips from Slovakia all improved their previous team record averages, despite the relatively slow competition draw. It was also the first FAI World Championship for all three teams, except for Fire Phoenix member Antonella Chiarin.

Fire Phoenix entered 4-way competition at the Italian indoor championships, which were a part of the Flyspot Open in November 2022. There they met four other teams who would also later travel to Slovakia for the indoor world championship (FLY X, Flyspot Sky4Four, Magic 4, HF Flying Rebels).

Next stop on their way to the 4-way Women competition in Slovakia was the ISR Grand Prix 2022, where they would meet the next two national teams (Out Of The Blue, HF Flying Circus) at an international indoor competition.

Their direct opponents in 4-way Women at the indoor world championship, Kiss My Grips from Slovakia, were still posting their scores on the AA Class leaderboard, when Fire Phoenix traveled to Prague for the Czech Indoor Open 2023 a few months later. They could also watch the HF Cubs posting a 27.0 average in January.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2023			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	NFTO	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	France 4-way Women	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	HF Cubs	CZ	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	XPG4	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Piteraq	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Airdrops	CH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Windabona Angels Chicas	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Fire Phoenix	IT	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	Kiss My Grips	SK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

The last test for Fire Phoenix was the German national indoor championship in March, where they competed together with the two German national indoor teams, Jochen Schweizer Arena Airfource (4-way Open) and Piteraq (4-way Women).

Fire Phoenix had now collected plenty of international meet experiences in the four meets between November 2022 and March 2023, and they had also met three of their 4-way Women opponents in Slovakia (HF Cubs, Piteraq, Kiss My Grips). They were ready to use the experiences at the indoor world championship and finished with their own new team record average (16.4) skipping the 15+ level.

The Slovakian home team Kiss My Grips lifted their own best average significantly to 15.2 after collecting competition experiences at two last meets of the Czech Tunnel League. It was still not enough to challenge the much improved Italian team.

The Windabona Angels Chicas must have known that their 15.8 average at the Spanish Indoor Nationals in February might not be enough to stay away from the bottom of the leaderboard. They liftedc their own performanance level from 15.8 to 17.5 and finished ahead of Kiss My Grips and Fire Phoenix both.