posted Aug 7th, 2009 - Quick update from Russia: Kaktus Hunter won the jumpoff this morning. Cross Road scored a 14-pointer for the 3-block sequence (17-22-8), Kaktus Hunter won with a 15-pointer.

The Russian Nationals now continue with the 8-way event.

The Russian Nationals 2009 have been completed after all ten rounds in 4-way. It was quite an effort though. Fyodor Mozgovoy, Ocean 5 videographer, reported that the missing eight rounds were all completed on the same day. The final round was just squeezed in at twilight time.

It was quite a race between Black Cat and Skylight Barkli for this year's Russian gold medals, and it still is a race between Kaktus Hunter and Cross Road for the bronze medals. Both teams are tied in 3rd place and will come back Saturday morning for a jump-off round.

World record owner for a single round, Black Cat, had to work hard for this year's Russian championship title, the first one in the team's history. Skylight Barkli offered as much opposition as possible.

Leonid Kazinets, Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin and Sergej Shenin had been up by two points before the weather interrupted the meet after Round 2. Black Cat had lost four points in Round 2 due to camera issues. Black Cat eliminated the difference already in Round 3 and took the lead in Round 4. Barkli still fought back in Round 6 where three teams scored 21-pointers and each took two points from Black Cat. Barkli was back up by one point and resisted for another round.

Black Cat eventually decided the meet with two sole highscores in Rounds 8 and 9 and went into the final round with a 3-point lead. Neither of the two top contenders had been able to win a round by more than two points, and chances were little that Skylight Barkli would be able to force Black Cat one more time to the knees.

All Russian teams that had already competed earlier this year posted the best averages of the 2009 season, despite the relatively slow competition draw. Black Cat attended the team's first competition, as Vasiliy Korotkov, Alexandr Kvochur, Alexei Minaev and Evgeniyy Stashchenko have neither trained nor competed much recently, due to lack of resources.

Two of the most progressive Russian teams this year, Cross Road and Kaktus Hunter, will fight it out on Saturday for the bronze medals. Kaktus Hunter had outscored Cross Road (17.6 - 15.9) at a smaller meet in May, and Cross Road now posted the team's highest average at the 4th outdoor competition. It will be an exciting jump-off tomorrow morning.

Gradient Alpha, aka Crystal, had actually the busiest season of all Russian teams with five outdoor competitions. The progression from a 13.4 average at the Valentine's Meet 2009 in February to this week's 18.0 average is very impressive.

The Russian Nationals 2009 came a little bit too early for Vladimir Arutyunov, Andrey Kalugin, Valery Kryshevich and Sergey Yalpaev. A few more months, and Gradient Alpha may have been able to join the race for the bronze medals.

An open question remains, as the Sky Panthers did not compete at the Russian Nationals 2009. The new Russian 4-way champion of 2009, Black Cat, has not faced the national team of the past years yet. Only three of them, Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin and Sergej Shenin, competed with Skylight Barkli this week. The complete Sky Panthers lineup, with Michail Kuznetsov, won the silver medals at the World Games 2009.

There will be four Russian 4-way teams competing at the FAI World Cup 2009. The NSL News has no accurate information yet which Russian teams have registered for the event. Maybe the Sky Panthers and Black Cat will have their showdown in Prostejov in early September.