posted Apr 22nd, 2014 - Russia has been a consistent factor in 4way and 8way Formation Skydiving competition on the top level for many years. Sets of gold, silver and bronze medals have taken turns in making the trip to Russia from world meet after world meet.

The Russian history in 4way Women has not been as consistent as in the traditional 4way and 8way events.

However, Russian female lineups have also won bronze medals two times since the new event was added to the World Championships of Formation Skydiving in 2001.

The Ladybirds placed 3rd for Russia in Croatia 2004 and Germany 2006. Larisa Sverdlenko was in all lineups at the world meets between 2001 and 2006, while Alena Chistova competed at the first world meet in 2001 and then again in 2012.

She became the second female Russian competitor to win an 8way medal at a world meet (Evolution Pro in 2004 and 2006). Now she has been coaching the Dubai Asaar Ladies for several years.

World Cup 2013		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Rd. 11	T.	Avg
Rank	4way Women	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	22,11,6	T.	Avg
1	Golden Knights (US)	22	25	17	17	19	18	21	20	24	20	17	220	20.0
1	Aerod. French Girls (FR)	21	27	16	18	20	17	17	23	24	20	17	220	20.0
3	Bodyflight Isis (UK)	19	18	17	14	16	16	16	17	21	16	-	170	17.0
4	Kaizen (UK)	16	21	14	16	15	14	15	18	19	15	-	163	16.3
5	Dubai Asaar Ladies (AE)	15	16	13	12	15	12	13	17	14	14	-	141	14.1
6	Fire (SE)	13	14	10	9	10	11	13	16	15	12	10	133	12.1
7	Infra Red Band (RU)	14	12	13	12	11	10	10	16	14	11	8	131	11.9
8	Seraphim (UK)	14	14	11	13	13	12	11	13	14	10	-	125	12.5
9	Team XX (UK)	13	13	10	10	10	11	11	13	14	-	-	105	11.7
10	SolarFlakes (LT)	8	8	2	7	8	8	4	10	10	6	-	71	7.1

The Russian team in 4way Women at the Mondial Dubai 2012, Illusions, did not continue after a very unfortunate meet, including injury and penalties.

Only one member, Zhanna Kazakova, came back with a new lineup in 2013, and the Infra Red Band competed at the World Cup 2013 in Banja Luka.

The team name relates to many different topics within the team, and one of them is the color of Olga Bykova's and Evgeniya Korzhova's hair.

Infra Red Band's Center Inside and Point decided in Kolomna, their home drop zone near Moscow, that they wanted to be on a 4way team together and began with their recruiting efforts.

They found Julia Kovrova in Kolomna who they had competed with and against at the annual 6way competition.

Zhanna Kazakova joined the team, and result was the lineup that competed at the World Cup in Banja Luka for the first time.

Zhanna Kazakova stepped back at the end of the 2013 season and continued as the team's alternate.

Evgeniya Stepanyuk took her Center Outside slot. She had competed in Russia's junior national Style and Accuracy team before turning to Formation Skydiving.

Her quick progression helped her to win the popular Russian 2way championships three consecutive times before she eventually competed with 2XL in the AAA Class at the Russian Nationals 2013.

All current Infra Red Gang members are in the 20s and young skydivers who made their first jumps between 2008 and 2010. Only Evgeniya Stepanyuk has been in the sport for a longer time starting in 2001.

Sunny Wind member Valentin Ilin supports the Infra Red Band with his coaching and the flexible Russian engineering.

The videos of some training jumps during the spring training camp in DeLand show his engineering signature.

Feb 26th, 2014		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	15,H,16	17,5,7	K,Q,P,22	F,D,9,2	J,3,14	Total	Avg
8	Infra Red Band (RU)	16	19	20	21	16	92	18.4

Infra Red Band attended one competition with the new lineup, the indoor competition at FreeZone in Moscow in February.

The new team has a 3-year plan and the ultimate goal is the gold medal at world chamnpionships. The team members have regular jobs and will train each weekend at Kolomna until this year's world meet in the Czech Republic.

The 2013 lineup completed approx. 130 jumps and added 15 hours of indoor training. Infra Red Band of 2014 made 90 training jumps in DeLand and plans to add 12 hours of wind tunnel training to the schedule.

Black Cat's 4way and 8way veteran Evgeny Staschenko will provide his coaching services in the wind tunnel, and Sunny Wind sponsor Valery Gredasov is also supporting the team.

Infra Red Band would like to be in contention for the bronze medal position in August this year. Kaizen from the United Kingdom would be the toughest opponent for this spot, and it will require at least an 18+ average in Prostejov. The Russian game is on...