posted Oct 31st, 2012 - It's a tough deal for a world class 8way team to compete at the same place and at the same time when the Golden Knights are thinking of scoring higher than the standing 22.4 world record average. It makes it difficult for a team like the Russian Sky Panthers Barkli to look like a top contender for gold medals this year.

Russia won 8way gold medals in 2001 and 2003, and several current Barkli members were in the world champion lineup of those years. The 19.3 average of 2001 won the gold medals for Russia, and 20.1 did the trick in 2003. Sky Panthers Barkli is now standing at 19.6 after Round 7, and this average is still far away from the 1st place where the Golden Knights are chasing the 22.4 average of 1997.

Barkli is also scoring higher than at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2012 (19.1) and it still doesn't make it much better compared to the Golden Knights.

The Golden Knights finished with a 21.9 average in March in DeLand and are at about the same scoring level after Round 7 at the USPA Nationals 2012. The distance between both teams doesn't seem to have changed much.

There are three more rounds to go, and both teams had difficulties in Round 8. The sequences of the remaining two rounds are not very fast, and the challenge of the 22.4 average may have to be postponed and saved for the Mondial 2012.

The NSL Reality TV camera followed the Russian team around this time, while the preparations for Round 8 were going on.