posted Mar 5th, 2012 - It's time to get ready for a historic battle in Formation Skydiving competition, which has its next part at the 8way competition of the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012.

Russia and the USA have a long and very exciting history in 8way competition that continues when Golden Knights and Sky Panthers Barkli compete in DeLand on March 17 and 18 this month. Both teams competed at the World Cup 2011 and then again at the USPA Nationals 2011 last year. They had also won silver (Golden Knights) and bronze medals (Barkli) at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, Russia.

The Golden Knights have had the upper hand for the USA in the recent years of 8way competition between those two countries. France, the third 8way power house, has won the gold medals and the 8way Excalibur sword in 2006, 2008 and 2010 but has only its two national 4way teams at the upcoming competition.

USPA Nationals 2011		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	8way Open	1,16,C	22,F,11	21,15,2	5,P,D,17	8,Q,3	O,M,G,10	9,12,19	A,N,14,J	4,H,20	E,18,B,7	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	26 (-2)	23	19	19	21	20	17	23	24 (-2)	20	212	21.2
2	Sky Panthers Barkli	22	24	16 (-2)	10 (-4)	19	17	15 (-1)	18	19 (-3)	17	177	17.7

USPA Nationals 2011 - Golden Knights - Sky Panthers Barkli - Rounds 1 to 5 - Rounds 6 to 10

Sky Panthers Barkli may not be able to outscore the Golden Knights at the moment, as the team is still in the building phase. However, there were different times, and some of the Russian team members remember well when Russia won the 8way gold medals at the World Meet 2001 in Spain and 2003 in France.

All Sky Panthers Barkli members (Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin, Sergei Shenin, Vasiliy Korotkov, Sergey Yalpaev, Vladimir Arutyunov, Alexander Tychinskiy and alternate Nikolay Vylegzhanin) except the youngest member and sponsor Leonid Kazinets grew up together as skydivers and competitors at the "Central Sport Parachute Club Airborne Troops" in Ryazan, guided by one of Russia's Formation Skydiving legends, Alexander Beloglazov.

Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin, Vasiliy Korotkov eventually ended up in the Russian 8way lineup that won the first gold medals for Russia over Arizona Airspeed in 2001.

World Cup 2011		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Round 9	Total	Avg
Rank	8way Open	7,M,15	8,14,D	5,18,J	B,9,2	Q,K,12,20	21,A,F,10	1,4,E	13,P,H,6	L,19,17	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	23	18	18	19	23	21	25	20	19	186	20.7
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	21	18	19	18	23	19	29	21	17	185	20.6
3	Sky Panthers Barkli	17	15	14 (-2)	17	16 (-3)	15 (-1)	19	19	15 (-2)	147	16.3

More original members of the Central Sport Parachute Club Airborne Troops joined the 8way lineup later and won the next set of gold medals in 2003. Both events were extremely exciting and included dramatic stories that the NSL News will pick up soon for the preview of the 8way competition at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012.

Fact is that Vladimir Pavlenko and Oleg Shalamykhin have also been competing on 4way world class level with Sky Panthers Barkli for years. They won the way bronze medals at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, together with Sergey Shenin and Michail Kuznetsov. Leonid Kazinets also took the 4way slot for Sky Panthers Barkli in 2011, but the main Russian focus is back on the 8way competition.

The Russian 8way team reduced the distance to the Golden Knights at the USPA Nationals 2011 and will try again to get closer in DeLand at the end of next week.