posted Jan 7th, 2021 - The competition for the top spot at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2020 was not only a duel between IFS-Moscow and the VDV Air Force team, at least not for the first three rounds. The two top contenders battled throughout the whole 10-round meet, and 3rd placed team Russian Thunder was a part of this race in the three early rounds, as well.

In fact, Russian Thunder were still in 2nd place after Round 5. IFS-Moscow had created their winning margin over VDV in Round 4 and Round 5 when they created a 10-point lead just in these two rounds. IFS-Moscow and VDV both eventually pulled away from Russian Thunder, even though Sergey Shenin's team finished with a 29.0 team record average.

Russian Thunder came to the Russian Indoor Nationals with a 26.1 average that they had posted first at the Fly Challenge 2020 in February and then copied at the Covid Cup, the warm-up meet for the Russian Indoor Nationals in October.

The significant upswing to 29.0 at the end of November may have even been a surprise for the team members themselves, while the two opponents and top contenders were probably surprised to have a third team keeping up with them.

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Russian Indoor Nationals 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	22,9,11	6,12,N	16,L,7	B,F,P,21	4,K,G,8	O,C,H,3	17,5,E	J,10,20	A,1,D,14	18,19,M	Total	Avg
1	IFS-Moscow	25	26	34	42	29	35	39	22	29	27	308	30.8
2	VDV	25	26	34	37	24	37	41	24	28	28	304	30.4
3	Russian Thunder	25	24	34	38	26	34	37	20	26	26	290	29.0
4	Bubbles	21	23	27	33	25	29	37	22	25	23	265	26.5
5	Team 42	18	19	26	32	22	27	25	19	26	23	237	23.7
6	Antitela	20	20	26	27	19	29	29	17	23	23	233	23.3
7	DDW-Team	20	17	25	31	17	29	33	17	22	18	229	22.9
8	No Limits	16	17	24	28	20	27	26	17	20	20	215	21.5
9	Quatro	19	18	21	24	17	26	29	16	18	21	209	20.9
10	5th Element	19	15	21	28	20	24	27	13	18	15	200	20.0
11	Bumblbee	14	15	21	24	17	23	23	14	19	14	184	18.4

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Russian Thunder at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2020

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The team in 2nd place, the Russian Air Force VDV lineup, were completely new in top spots on Russian 4-way leaderboards, even though they had finished with a 23.9 average and a 3rd place at the indoor nationals in 2019. However, even the 30.4 average may have not surprised one of the Russian Thunder members that much.

Georgiy Miroshnichenko has been with the same Thunder lineup since 2018, and he is also coaching the military team at the same time. VDV had picked up the training pace in October and November spending three hours per week in their military wind-tunnel.

Georgiy Miroshnichenko must have known that the team was ready for a top performance. The bigger surprise may have been the fact that his own team, Russian Thunder, were one point ahead of VDV after Round 5.

The military team's coach obviously found a way to get VDV going again after the 10-point loss in the two rounds. VDV won the second half of the 10-round meet by six points over IFS-Moscow, and neither the coach nor the winner could keep up any longer with the runner-up.

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Fly Challenge 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		C,D,Q,20		J,4,G,19		18,5,O		F,16,M,10		P,13,21		11,15,17		1,12,2		N,K,L,A,E		B,11,6		3,9,14		Total	Avg
1	Russian Thunder	RU	29		23		24		29		25		21		19		41		25		25		261	26.1
2	Airbus	DE	24	-5	21		22		27		23		19		17		37	-1	24		23		237	23.7
3	CISM Windwerk	CH	29		22		22		28		22		19		18		21		24		22		227	22.7
4	Skynamite	DE	24		16	-2	17		23		19		15		15		28		21		19		197	19.7
5	Piteraq	DE	21	-1	19		16	-1	21	-1	15	-3	15		15		24	-1	19		18		183	18.3
6	Paranodon Futura	DE	19		17		15		20		19		13		14		24		14		15		170	17.0
7	Hoo Lee Rest	DE	17		14		15		21		17		13		11		26		15		17		166	16.6
8	EOS	CH	19		16		12		19		16		13		13		18		15		17		158	15.8
9	Wintertunnel	DE	18		15		12		19		17		14		11		20		16		15		157	15.7
10	Feierabendflieger	DE	19		16		13		20		17		12		11		20		14		14		156	15.6
11	NeVa	DE	16		14		15		18		16		13		9		22		17		13		153	15.3
12	Bazinga FSZ Saar	DE	16		14		10		17		17		12		13		16		14		12		141	14.1
13	Phoenix	DE	16		10		13		17		15		11		11		21		11		12		137	13.7
14	Titten und Bier	DE	13		13		12		17		15		9		11		18		15		12		135	13.5
15	Paranodon	DE	12		12		11		16		14		9		9		15		12		10		120	12.0

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Russian Thunder at the Fly Challenge 2020

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Russian Thunder began with a 24.1 average at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2018. Player-coach Sergey Shenin is one of the most experienced Formation Skydiving competitors in Russia. He was a member of Russia's 8-way team at the FAI World Meet 2003 where he won his first gold medal.

He switched to 4-way competition and continued with Barkli's 4-way team, who missed a silver medal by two points and bronze by one point in Germany 2006. Barkli ended up again in 4th place two years later in Maubeuge 2008. Another two years later, the same lineup with Sergey Shenin (Mikhail Kuznetsov, Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin, Andrey Seliverstov on camera) eventually won the 4-way bronze medals in Menzelinsk 2010.

Sergey Shenin continued for two more years in 4-way, while training and competing with Barkli's 8-way lineup at the same time. The 8-way team won bronze medals at the FAI Mondial 2012 in Dubai, and Barkli's 4-way team placed 5th.

Russian Thunder has been Sergey Shenin's latest 4-way project, and the progression is impressive. The 2020 season began with a 26.1 average and the 1st place at the Fly Challenge in Munich, Germany, the country's last indoor competition before the corona virus pandemic. The 29.0 average in Moscow concluded a very successful year for Russian Thunder.