posted Jan 22nd, 2010 - The World Challenge 2010 will be the 4th time that the Russian team Kaktus Hunter will travel to Bedford for the world's biggest and most popular indoor competition.

Egor Gusev (Inside Center), Andrei Kharitonov (Outside Center), Katya Kharitonova (Point) and Anna Panasyuk (Tail) have competed almost as many times in the wind tunnel as the team has attended outdoor meets in the past three years. The indoor scoring progression at the World Challenge has been impressive (16.6 - 22.2 - 23.9) in the past three years, and Kaktus Hunter is not planning to slow down.

The team career began at the end of the 2006 season when Kaktus Hunter competed at the USPA Nationals as a guest team. Evolution Pro 8-way expert Sergey Romanyuk was in the lineup with Egor Gusev, Anna Panasyuk and Ekaterina Kharitonova.

He filled the open slot for Andrei Kharitonov, Katya's brother. Kaktus Hunter finished in last place of 14 teams in the Open Class competition with a 12.6 average.

The Russian world class team Black Cat took on the best US teams at the same event and finished in 2nd place with a 21.8 average, only four points behind DeLand Groove and ahead of Team Fastrax, Airspeed Odyssey of 2006 and Perris Fury.

The situation has changed now. Kaktus Hunter has worked hard to catch up with the top level of 4-way competition in Russia, and Black Cat, the Russian 4-way champion of 2009, was only 19 points ahead of Kaktus Hunter (20.9 - 19.9) at last year's national championship.

The 2009 season was motivating for Kaktus Hunter, and the plans for 2010 are ambitious. The Russian 4-way shooting star already completed an indoor training camp with coach Andy Delk in December. The Airspeed world champion worked with Kaktus Hunter for seven hours of tunnel time in Moscow's 16-foot Freezone tunnel before he traveled to Dubai and won Airspeed's 21st competition.

Now he goes back to Russia after a short visit at the Airspeed home in Arizona. The next tunnel camp with Kaktus Hunter is scheduled for mid February. Kaktus Hunter will be well prepared for the World Challenge 2010.

Kaktus Hunter's next outdoor showdown after the Russian Nationals 2009 was at the World Cup 2009 where four Russian teams competed. This time, Kaktus Hunter was not able to stay as close to the 4-way veterans of Black Cat and Skylight Barkli (21.2 - 21.0 - 17.4) as at the national championship.

However, the 2010 season is supposed to cut the difference next to nothing. Kaktus Hunter is ready now to get to the very top level. After the World Challenge 2010, the team will travel to Arizona for an outdoor training camp at the place where the team name originated.

Kaktus Hunter will then use a pre-season competition in Russia on May 1 - 3 to get some additional competition practice. The Russian Nationals 2010 follow at the end of June.

Kaktus Hunter leaves no doubt any longer: the goal is to win this year. It is still a young team compared to the other Russian 4-way teams and competitors. The chances are probably still better than ever. Black Cat is not training much any longer, and the Sky Panthers and Skylight Barkli members focus on 8-way, as the NSL News reported earlier.

There is only a change on the camera position. Former videographer Oxsana "Oksi" Klueva has left the team and will be filming the Russian Wolfshound all-female lineup. A very experienced Russian 4-way and 8-way camera expert will take the slot and film Kaktus Hunter this year.

Mansur Mustafin has been filming Russian 4-way and 8-way teams for a while. His last assignment was with Gradient Alpha, aka Kristal, in 4-way, and he was also filming the Russian 8-way team Kristal Contour at the World Cup 2009. The scores at the World Challenge 2010 will show how strongly Kaktus Hunter will challenge the Russian top teams this year.