posted Mar 2nd, 2013 - The newest scores on the NSL leaderboard are coming from an indoor competition at Freezone in Moscow. Several of the team names are familiar, especially the two on the top of the leaderboard. SportLoto and Sky Panthers Barkli are engaged in a hot battle for the 1st place.

Both teams were covered by the NSL News this year. The story on 14 February 2013 broke the news that SportLoto and Thunder continue their race for the world's unofficial top spot in the amateur rankings this year. The story on 25 February 2013 announced that Sky Panthers Barkli has finalized plans for the 2013 season, which include the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013.

SportLoto has the World Challenge 2013 on the team schedule, and both teams are now meeting each other for the first time this year before they travel from Russia in different directions soon. Eventually they will compete for the top spot in Russia at the national championships.

Freezone 2013		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	G,10,N,O	14,K,2	8,18,22	7,15,E	M,17,A,21	13,J,20	L,11,F,9	3,C,16	Total	Avg
1	SportLoto (RU)	27	24	20	-	-	-	-	-	71	23.7
2	Sky Panthers Barkli (RU)	27	23	20	-	-	-	-	-	70	23.3
3	UFO (RU)	22	18	17	-	-	-	-	-	57	19.0
3	a.team4way (RU)	20	20	17	-	-	-	-	-	57	19.0
5	Sky 45 (RU)	19	19	15	-	-	-	-	-	53	17.7
6	OSA-HA (RU)	16	17	13	-	-	-	-	-	49	16.3
7	Phoenix 1 (RU)	15	16	13	-	-	-	-	-	44	14.7
8	SSSShake (RU)	14	15	12	-	-	-	-	-	41	13.7
9	Phoenix 2 (RU)	12	14	13	-	-	-	-	-	39	13.0
10	Mad Ducks (RU)	10	11	8	-	-	-	-	-	29	9.7

SportLoto is the more experienced indoor team and has the 1st place after three rounds in Moscow. In fact, Sky Panthers Barkli has not competed at many indoor events at all, even though three of the team members (Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin, Sergey Shenin) have been competing before wind tunnels were even used for skydiving training.

The NSL News found only one event in the archives where Sky Panthers Barkli appeared on an indoor leaderboard. The team name was actually Skylight Barkli by then, and Leonid Kazinets was the 4th member at the World Challenge 2008. He has been training and competing with the same lineup in 4way and 8way ever since, including the Mondial Dubai 2012 where he won a bronze medal for Russia in 8way.

He has now stepped back, and 2012 alternate and 8way team member Nikolay Vylegzhanin is the team's Center Inside in Moscow this weekend and for the 2013 season.

World Challenge 2008		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	21-18-13	15-11-F	E-H-19-O	14-2-N	12-1-K	Q-5-C-3	P-9-A-J	6-G-7	4-10-M	16-20-B	Total	Avg
6	Sky Panthers Barkli (RU)	19	16	33	20	17	24	45	26	21	21	242	24.2
12	Kaktus Hunter (RU)	18	20	28	21	16	21	39	24	19	16	222	22.2

Sky Panthers Barkli	Kaktus Hunter

Sky Panthers Barkli outscored two team members of SportLoto at the World Challenge 2008. Egor Gusev and Andrew Kharitonov competed for Kaktus Hunter in Bedford at a time when Sky Panthers Barkli was dominating 4way competition in Russia. They are now in their second year with SportLoto, and they are obviously challenging the Russian national champions of many years.

However, the Sky Panthers are planning more indoor training this year, and their strength comes with exits from jump planes. It will be an interesting 2013 season in Russia.

The NSL News also introduced a.team4way with the story on 17 February 2013. Katya Kharitonova is also a Kaktus Hunter of 2008. Her new and young team is not ready yet to challenge the Sky Panthers and her brother Andrew Kharitonov's team. However, she is working on that and has both upcoming major events on her team schedule.