posted Sep 18th, 2017 - The silver medals in 4-way Women at the FAI World Cup 2017 were one part of the successful visit of Russia's Formation Skydiving delegation in Saarlouis.

It was not only Bubble Trouble's silver medal contribution to the Russian collection that caught the attention of the NSL News and the Formation Skydiving community. The 2nd place and the 18.2 average were both the best results of a Russian team in 4-way Women at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving.

The Ladybirds (Elena Mazaeva, Anna Panasyuk, Larisa Sverdlenko, Ekaterina Voronina, with Fyodor Mozgovoy on camera) had won two sets of bronze medals for Russia in Rijeka 2004 (15.3) and Gera 2006 (14.6) before Bubble Trouble set new standards with silver in Saarlouis and the 18.2 average after five rounds.

The Bubble Trouble performance in Saarlouis was not a complete surprise. The same lineup had posted a 23.5 average at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2017, which was a strong statement and a warning for any other team in the same category at the FAI World Cup less than three months later.

FAI World Cup 2017			1	2	3	4	5	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		L,O,F,K,11	C,3,7	13,2,G	1,17,20	5,E,21	Total	Avg
1	French Weembi Girls	FR	29	17	19	16	23	104	20.8
2	Bubble Trouble	RU	23	20	16	14	18	91	18.2
3	Parachute Montreal Fuzion	CA	24	20	16	15	16	91	18.2
4	No Mercy	PL	20	15	10	13	15	73	14.6
5	Meija	SE	19	14	10	12	14	69	13.8
6	PTW	UK	13	9	8	9	11	50	10.0
7	Kesshin	UK	10	7	6	6	9	38	7.6

Canada's national team in 4-way Women, Parachute Montreal Fuzion, had to deal with the new Russian power in this category, after easily leaving Russia's Infra Red Band far behind (17.1 - 13.0) at the FAI Mondial 2016.

Fuzion had posted a 22.6 average at the Canadian Indoor Nationals 2017 and then added a point to the team's outdoor performance level (17.1 - 18.2) for a new team record average in Saarlouis less than a year later. It was still not enough to outscore the new Russian team.

Bubble Trouble won the silver medals after the tie-breaking procedure and completing the last common scoring formation a little bit earlier than Fuzion.

However, the Russian team was ready for the next round or a jump-off under the challenging weather conditions, as team member Olga Bykova explained during the NSL Live Talk.

She said that Russian teams are used to similar weather conditions, and Bubble Trouble was prepared to master the wet and cloudy freefall environment on the same performance level.

Olga Bykova also said that it was not easy to put together such a strong lineup, as there are not many well trained and experienced female 4-way competitors in Russia.

The Bubble Trouble lineup is a very strong combination of talent and experience and will surely be a medal contender next year in Australia.

Russian Indoor Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	18,17,M	16,11,G	10,19,A	F,8,J,4	3,20,N	2,P,C,12	21,6,D	9,14,5	E,7,22	K,O,15,H	Total	Avg
1	Black Cat	26	24	24	25	22	25	25	27	26	36	260	26.0
2	IFS-Moscow	25	23	23	25	23	25	25	31	29	30	259	25.9
3	Bubble Trouble	26	20	21	24	19	22	26	27	23	27	235	23.5

Alena Chistova alone brings in a wealth of 4-way and 8-way experience after training and competing with Russian Open Class teams in both events at world cups and world meets since 2003. She won two FAI 8-way bronze medals with Evolution Pro in 2004 and 2006 and eventually followed Eliana Rodiguez and Craig Girard to Dubai for a coaching job with the national team in 4-way Women, the Dubai Asaar Ladies.

As Eliana Rodriguez, she is also the only other female Formation Skydiving competitor who has competed in all three FAI events (4-way Open, 4-way Women, 8-way) at World Championships of Formation Skydiving.

Her Bubble Trouble team mate Zhanna Kazakova has been training and competing with Russian teams in 4-way Women almost just as long, while Olga Bykova and Tatiana Polyanskaya entered the Russian 4-way scene in the recent years. Olga Bykova had her slot in the Infra Red Band lineup for a while, and Tatiana Polyanskaya trained and competed with her husband Sergey Polyansky for the XOteam.

Olga Bykova said that she hopes to train more next year and compete again for medals at the FAI World Meet in Australia.