posted Jul 13th, 2021 - The NSL News is catching up with indoor events in Russia before the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 will catch much of the attention in August. The introduction of the Russian Formation Skydiving delegation for the outdoor competition will follow very soon, as well.

The Russian Indoor Nationals took place at the beginning of December in Moscow, and the NSL News reported on 30 December 2020 that IFS-Moscow won their first national 4-way indoor title and are qualified to compete for Russia at the next indoor world meet.

The IFS-Moscow lineup, with Alexander Golovkin still replacing Tanay 8-way member Dmitry "Dima" Samokhval, fended off the surprising charge by the new military team VDV by four points. The NSL News followed up with an introduction of the Russian Air Force team on January 28th.

VDV, still competing without the leader of the new 4-way project, Georgy Miroshnichenko, then posted another 30.5 average, as the NSL News reported on February 7th. VDV continued with indoor and outdoor training as soon as the Russian winter was over and the weather allowed activities in both environments.

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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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4-way team Black Cat have represented Russia at the international FAI indoor and outdoor events in the past, including the last indoor world meet at Weembi 2019. They did not continue with 4-way training and competition when they committed to the Tanay 8-way team with the goal to win the next 8-way gold medals at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020.

IFS-Moscow had battled with Black Cat at several previous indoor meets and did not have to face them any longer in 2020. However, a new challenger came almost out of nowhere, and IFS-Moscow did not have any lesser opposition for the indoor title than before.

In fact, the new VDV challenger started off at the same performance and scoring level where Black Cat used to be. IFS-Moscow were still in the same situation with a very strong contender for the indoor top spot.

In addition, IFS-Moscow also had to replace Dmitry Samokhval, who has been training and competing with the team since it was founded in 2017. Alena Chistova was helping out before Alexander Golovkin joined the lineup when Dmitry Samokhval focused only on 8-way training and competition.

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Russian Indoor Cup 2021		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	21,12,19	Q,G,A,J,17	M,8,O,22	5,7,15	9,C,2	18,4,K	D,P,H,N,3	1,13,14	L,16,11	10,E,20	Total	Avg
1	VDV	27	41	28	32	36	27	43	27	28	26	315	31.5
2	IFS-Moscow	23	39	28	28	31	27	41	24	23	26	290	29.0
3	Bubbles	25	33	25	27	31	28	41	22	26	26	284	28.4
4	Russian Thunder	21	32	20	29	31	25	38	23	23	23	265	26.5
5	VDV 2	21	30	24	24	28	24	33	20	22	20	246	24.6
6	42	17	28	23	24	24	21	31	22	22	21	233	23.3
7	No Limits	21	33	21	21	24	21	32	19	20	19	231	23.1
8	Antibodies	21	28	21	24	25	21	31	20	21	17	229	22.9
9	DDW-Team	20	32	17	22	26	21	30	20	19	20	227	22.7
10	Quartet	17	27	22	19	26	15	31	19	19	19	214	21.4
11	Bumblbee	14	29	20	18	24	17	27	18	19	17	203	20.3

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VDV - IFS Moscow - Bubbles at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2021

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IFS-Moscow won the official Russian indoor title in December 2020, and the Russian Indoor Cup has been concluding Russia's indoor competition season in the past. It took place in April this year, and both Russian top contenders were back, even though IFS-Moscow had not trained much in preparation for this event.

VDV, on the other hand, were very well prepared. Georgy Miroshnichenko finally joined the lineup of the Air Force's signature team and replaced Oleg Borovin. He had competed for Russian Thunder since 2018, with 4-way and 8-way veteran Sergey Shenin in the player-coach position.

The new VDV lineup started with a new 31.5 record average and won the Russian Indoor Cup by 25 points over IFS-Moscow. Only Black Cat has ever scored higher in the history of Russian 4-way indoor competition, with the 31.6 average at the FAI European Indoor Championship 2018.

Russian Thunder had to give up the 3rd place without Georgy Miroshnichenko in the lineup, as Russia's national team in 4-way Women, Bubbles, finished with a new 28.4 team record average, once again under Alena Chistova's guidance. Thunder copied Bubbles' 26.5 at the November event, while the 4-way Women team was only six points behind IFS-Moscow in April.