posted May 6th, 2012 - The NSL News story on 27 April 2012 gave the impression that the 8way thriller between Arizona Airspeed and Russia at the World Meet 2001 in Spain was the ultimate showdown possible at a skydiving competition.

The drama of the competition and the 1-point finish is hard to beat, but it was not the end of the 8way battle between USA and Russia. In fact, it continued exactly two years later, and it became even more exciting - if that was possible...

Russia had won the 8way sword Excalibur for the first time in history, and Russia's 8way godfather Alexander Beloglazov would surely try to defend it in 2003. However, things changed again in Russia, as they did in the USA.

Dan BC, Alan Metni, Jack Jefferies, Gary Beyer, Mark Kirkby and John Eagle were not any longer on the Airspeed lineup that would compete at the World Meet 2003 in France.

Russia had a complete makeover after winning the gold medals, as well. Oleg Shalamykhin even called it a new era of Russian 8way competition.

His former team captain and 4way sponsor Igor Sitnikov was healthy and ready for action again. This time, he decided to recruit an 8way lineup, and RT Evolution PRO was born.

It was a first class lineup, loaded with 8way world champions of 2001 and other members of the original 8way project (Viktor Gorbunkov, Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin, Sergey Shenin, Mihail Mineev, Nikolay Sukharnikov, Aleksander Mertz, Dmitriy Samohval) and the two sponsors, Igor Sitnikov and Leonid Kazinetz.

Other Russian player coach projects continued at the same time and maintained the world class level in both events:

Goblins (Vladimir Akopov, Aleksander Tichinskiy, Vladimir Arutyunov, Mihail Mosolov), Sky Panthers (Mihail Kuznetsov, Aleksey Minaev, Vasiliy Korotkov, Evgeniy Stajenko), Wild Wind (Aleksander Utkin, Andrey Barabash, Vladimir Ostanin, Nikolay Vilegjanin, Sergey Yalpaev, Alena Chistova).

The new RT Evolution PRO lineup won the national championships of 2002 in 4way and in 8way, and the 4way lineup (Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin, Sergey Shenin, Igor Sitnikov) confirmed the top position in Russia at the Malevsky Cup and the World Cup 2002.

World Meet 2003		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Rd. 11	Total	Avg
Rank	8way Open	1-11-12	M-J-E-10	K-16-6	13-14-5	D-22-4	9-C-Q-N	F-19-21	2-20-L	18-B-3	8-P-7	G-O-17-H	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed (US)	23	19	24	17	23	20	19	17	24	16	19	221	20.1
1	Russia (RU)	23	19	24	16	26	21	19	18	21	15	19	221	20.1
3	France (FR)	25	17	21	13	25	20	16	16	24	16	-	193	19.3
4	Italy (IT)	15	14	19	12	15	14	13	12	17	13	-	144	14.4
5	VNE (UK)	11	14	18	11	13	14	14	12	16	-	-	123	13.7

The 4way event had to go on hibernation for the Evolution members in 2003. The Russian focus went back to the 8way competition where the gold medals of 2001 had to be defended in Gap, France.

RT Evolution PRO spent a lot of time in Ampuriabrava, Spain, and completed approx. 850 training jumps before the World Meet 2003. Oleg Shalamykhin said that his 4way team did not even compete at the national championships of 2003, and Wild Wind won the 4way gold medals.

The 2003 season was over for the Sky Panthers, as well. However, sponsor Mihail Kuznetsov remembered the 8way history of the 2001 season and suggested to RT Evolution PRO sponsor Igor Sitnikov that he was ready to help making the 8way team even stronger by offering his three Sky Panthers (Aleksey Minaev, Vasiliy Korotkov, Evgeniy Stajenko) for the RT Evolution PRO lineup.

Igor Sitnikov and his 8way team eventually invited Vasiliy Korotkov and Aleksey Minaev to train and compete for Russia in 8way to defend the gold medals at the World Meet 2003.

The Russian lineup for the competition in Gap was complete and consisted of: Aleksey Minaev, Vasiliy Korotkov, Oleg Shalamykhin, Vladimir Pavlenko, Sergey Shenin, Viktor Gorbunkov, Mihail Mineev, Nikolay Sukharnikov, alternate Dmitriy Samohval and coach Aleksander Mertz. The countdown for the next 8way showdown with Arizona Airspeed was running.