posted Mar 15th, 2010 - Yesterday's update from the last day of the Skydive EXPO in DeLand mentioned that two 4-way teams from Russia will compete this weekend at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2010, Friday 13 and Black Cat.

The internal Russian competition at the season opener of the Florida Skydiving League is a preview of a thrilling 4-way competition season to come in Russia, the host of the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010.

It looked for a while as if the Russian shooting star underdog of the past years, Kaktus Hunter, might be able to make its way easily to the top level of 4-way competition in Russia since other veteran teams did not seem to have serious plans for 2010. The NSL News story on 22 January 2010 had provided more information.

An earlier story on 5 December 2009 (Archives > 2009 > News > Search for: "Russian 8-way") explained that several of the strongest Russian Formation Skydiving competitors had joined forces to form a strong 8-way lineup for the 2010 season. The world class 4-way and 8-way competitors of Sky Panthers and Skylight Barkli would focus on 8-way and open the door for Kaktus Hunter in 4-way.

The other Russian world class 4-way team of the past years, Black Cat, is the reigning Russian 4-way champion of 2009 and finished in 4th place with a 21.2 average at the World Cup 2009 in the Czech Republic.

However, Black Cat has had limited resources for training and competition for a while and a recent personnel change. Alexander Kvochur is not with Black Cat any longer. 8-way world champion of 2001 and 2003, Alexey Minaev, who served as the alternate for the team last year, is back in the lineup.

The new Black Cat lineup competed already at the Dubai Championship and finished in 5th place with a 19.1 average. This is not the scoring level where Black Cat used to be at peak times with earlier lineups. However, the Russian team is back in full training swing with the support of the Russian oil corporation Lukoil, which means that the other Russian 4-way teams have to watch out.

Black Cat is recently at a training camp in Arizona and will travel to Florida this week. The scores at the Shamrock Showdown will show the difference between the first competition in Dubai and Black Cat's shape two months later.

Friday 13 has a very strong lineup with experienced Russian 4-way and 8-way competitors, as well. The NSL News will introduce the lineup later. The Friday 13 performance at the Shamrock Showdown will also show whether this new linup might be in the Russian 4-way top mix this year or not.

Other news from Russia are not making it much easier for Kaktus Hunter. Sky Panthers founder Michail Kuznetsov, Russian 4-way bronze medalist of 2004, does not continue as a member of the 8-way lineup that the NSL News introduced in December. He wants to focus only on the 4-way competition with the Sky Panthers.

The 8-way lineup already has a new member, and the NSL News will get to the 8-way story later. Fact is that Black Cat and Sky Panthers are back in full swing and will probably be ready to push each other again up to world class levels.

Kaktus Hunter has to be ready for this situation and will try to keep up with the Russian top competitors of the past years. It might become a 3-way race in Russia this year. Kaktus Hunter will post the team's first 2010 scores at the World Challenge 2010.