posted Aug 20th, 2013 - The 4way Open Class leaderboard of the World Cup 2013 required a little cleaning up session, which has now been done.

There were only 16 teams competing in Banja Luka, even though the NSL leaderboard was showing 17 teams throughout the competition. The Sun Path Products NSL News mentioned on 13 August 2013 that the Russian team Fly Station did not make it to Banja Luka.

Fly Station was officially registered for the Russian delegation at the World Cup and was on the way to Banja Luka. However, the team did not arrive despite last minute efforts. The team name remained on the NSL leaderboard, as it was officially registered with a chance that the travel problems might eventually get fixed. It did not happen, Alexander Tychinskiy, Sergey Yalpaev, Vladimir Arutunov, Yury Drozdov and vodegrapher Andrei Tretiyakov missed the meet.

Fly Station Rd. 4	FlyStation Rd. 6

The new Russian team, with highly skilled and experienced 4way and 8way competitors, was still eager to show what they have to offer and quickly decided to copy the competition sequences for their own participation in Kolomna, the skydiving center near Moscow.

The special leaderboard is showing the scores and the videos of the training meet and compares them to the other teams who competed in Banja Luka. The scores are more or less the number of completed formations within working time, with a few point deductions for the most obvious infringements.

Training scores never compare well and directly with the results at the competition site. The meet atmosphere makes a big difference, and the judging panel is not the same. However, training scores may indicate the potential of a team and an idea of the approximate placement.
Click on the score for a round with a link to see the teams' videos

World Cup 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	4way Open	O,4,H,3	9,17,P	L,1,G,12	7,10,21	16,E,A,15	8,2,B	18,5,Q	F,14,K,N	M,C,D,13	20,J,19	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa (BE)	27	33	23	22	29	22(-2)	26	28	33(-1)	24	267	26.7
2	Barkli (RU)	26	31	21	20	22(-3)	21	24(-1)	25(-1)	26(-3)	21	237	23.7
3	Maubeuge Aerodyne (FR)	22	28	20	20	23	16(-1)	21	22(-2)	28	21	221	22.1
4	Fly Station (RU)	23	27	20	20	23	21	22	21(-2)	26	17(-1)	220	22.0

Fly Station would have most likely been in medal contention for the 3rd place at the World Cup, where the teams in the top spots did not have any competition for their medal positions.

The absence of the Fly Station members had an impact on the 8way competition, as well. Sergey Yalpaev was supposed to compete for Barkli's 8way team, while Vladimir Arutunov and Alexander Tychinskiy were in the Fly Tanay lineup. Both 8way teams had to make adjustments to their lineups for the World Cup competition. Yuri Drozdov was a SportLoto member. His former team had no plans for the 2013 season and may come back next year.

Fly Station and the other Russian teams in Banja Luka now have a few weeks before the national championships. Barkli's 4way lineup does not seem to have serious competition at home. The silver medals in Banja Luka are the best international 4way result for Barkli in team history. The Sun Path Products NSL News will follow up on Barkli soon.