posted Dec 19th, 2017 - The Freezone wind tunnel in Moscow hosted the first Russian Indoor Nationals earlier this month. The 16-foot flying chamber allowed the AAA Class teams to perform the whole dive pool, and the 10-round draw included the two blocks (1,13) that are not a part of FAI/IPC championship events. FAI/IPC indoor meets have been hosted only by wind tunnels with 14-foot flying chambers so far.

Black Cat completed the 10-round FAI/IPC draw at the Indoor World Meet 2017 just two months ago and had missed the bronze medals by one single point after the jump-off round against Arizona Airspeed. Round 11 in Montreal had the fastest sequence of the meet and produced the new official FAI indoor world record with Airspeed's 59-pointer.

This time, the toughest domestic challenger was waiting for Black Cat at the national indoor championships, and Russia's national outdoor team knew about the strength of IFS-Moscow. Yury Drozdov, Egor Gusev, Dmitry Komkov and Dmitry Samokhval had finished only one single point behind Black Cat after the 10-round May meet at Freezone.

IFS-Moscow was well prepared, as the team focuses only on indoor competition, and it seemed like an upset was on the way. The challenger was four points ahead after Round 8. Black Cat had lost too many points (9) due to penalties in the first half of the meet.

Russia Indoor May 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
4	4-way Partners	21	19	18	23	16	21	22	27	24	27	218	21.8
5	Sky 45	20	20	14	18	15	19	21	28	21	27	203	20.3
6	No Limits	16	18	18	20	15	18	18	20	18	25	186	18.6
7	Altair	13	17	14	16	14	15	16	19	21	22	167	16.7
8	Two Capitals	11	7	8	11	11	11	11	10	12	14	106	10.6
9	Runway	7	7	9	9	8	10	11	10	9	12	92	9.2

Then came Round 9, which had a very similar sequence as the one for the world record round in Montreal.

This time, it played out to the advantage of Black Cat who tied Airspeed's 59-pointer in Moscow and won the round by eight points over IFS-Moscow. Black Cat had turned the 4-point deficit into a 6-point advantage in the last two rounds of the meet.

Black Cat competed with the same lineup that attended the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2017 in Saarlouis and the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 in Montreal, where Vladimir Pavlenko had replaced Evgeny Stashchenko, who is recovering from a knee injury. Alexander Golovkin was the substitute at the May indoor meet in Moscow.

IFS-Moscow had the same lineup at the team's three meets this year. They had launched the indoor team project at the World Challenge 2017 with a 26.6 average.

Black Cat and IFS-Moscow both lifted their performance levels significantly between the Freezone meets in May and December. In fact, the December averages are new records for both Russian teams.

Russian Indoor Nationals 2017		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	A,17,22	7,10,2	O,5,15	1,P,12	4,13,19	Q,21,K,3	N,B,C,L,14	G,18,11	F,J,M,9	D,20,H,8	Total	Avg
1	Black Cat	26	22	30	27	23	29	38	25	59	29	308	30.8
2	IFS-Moscow	29	25	29	26	22	27	40	26	51	27	302	30.2
3	Bubble Struggle	22	19	23	21	18	23	31	21	47	24	249	24.9
4	Naparniki	24	17	23	19	17	21	25	19	49	23	237	23.7
5	Altair	20	17	16	16	15	17	27	16	38	18	200	20.0
6	No Limits	19	16	16	16	15	18	25	12	33	15	185	18.5
7	Podel'niki	14	13	16	15	11	17	22	15	37	15	175	17.5
8	Noviy Povorot	16	14	14	15	11	14	22	13	34	14	167	16.7

Black Cat members Valentin Ilin, Vasily Korotkov and Vladimir Pavlenko are also training and competing with Russia's 8-way team Tanay, together with injured Evgeny Stashchenko, while Alexander Kvochur focuses only on 4-way competition.

IFS-Moscow has another Tanay member in the opposing 4-way lineup. Dmitry Samokhval is one of the longest standing and most experienced Russian 4-way and 8-way competitors and won his first 8-way bronze medal at the FAI World Meet 2004 in Croatia. He trained and competed with Russia's 8-way team Barkli before joining Tanay in 2015.

Andrey Barabash, Alexey Minaev, Alexander Tychinskiy and Sergey Yalpaev complete Tanay's 8-way lineup.

Dmitry Samokhval will now join forces again with his 8-way team mates Valentin Ilin, Vasily Korotkov and Vladimir Pavlenko, who are also waiting for Evgeny Stashchenko's comeback. The Black Cat members will have a very busy 2018 season ahead with double duties at the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia, where they are aiming at medal positions in both events...