posted Oct 12th, 2012 - The NSL News reported on 2 October 2012 that Russia's national 8way team Sky Panthers Barkli will compete at the USPA Nationals 2012. The same story mentioned that Barkli plans to train in DeLand before attending the competition, then take a break for a short visit at home, followed by the trip to Eloy.

The Russian 8way team has almost completed the first training camp in DeLand, which is not the first visit this year. Barkli also came to DeLand in March to compete at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 after a few days of training before the meet.

The NSL News visited the Russian team on a training day and captured parts of the training action for a new NSL Reality TV clip. Team videographer Andrey Seliverstov also provided some brandnew footage of this week's training.

The door to the Russian team room was open for the NSL News, and the NSL Reality TV clip includes debriefing in Russian language. The coverage went even a step further this time, as the NSL News also followed Sky Panthers Barkli on the plane ride to jump altitude and then out the door.

Barkli was in the middle of a series of four back-to-back training jumps when the NSL News joined the team for one jump and the turnaround. Team captain and player coach Oleg Shalamykhin, one of the most experienced 4way and 8way competitors in the world, had invited the NSL News to follow the team during the training.

He and his team mates Vladimir Pavlenko and Sergey Shenin have been training and competing together since 1991. Aleksander Tichinskiy was also in the same training group that Alexander Beloglazov launched at that time, and they all attended their first 8way World Meet in Eloy 1993.

Oleg Shalamykhin, Vladimir Pavlenko and Sergey Shenin have been together in the same 4way and 8way lineups ever since, with very few exceptions and interruptions, and competed for Russia at almost all World Meets. Aleksander Tichinskiy started even earlier, with 4way at the World Meet in 1991.

Sky Panthers Barkli's first training camp will be over tomorrow, and the team members will visit at home or go on different vacations in the USA before traveling to Eloy for the USPA Nationals 2012. There they will have four days of training before the 8way competition begins.

Then the Russian 8way team goes back to DeLand for another 2-week training camp where the latest meet experiences after the competition with the Golden Knights will be digested and the final preparations for the Mondial 2012 in Dubai begin.