posted Dec 20th, 2017 - The leaderboard of the Russian Nationals 2017 that was posted with yesterday's update was missing one team. TochkaG had a separate leaderboard and was officially the winner of the 4-way Women competition. Both Russian all-female teams, Bubble Struggle and TochkaG, yet applied the same competition draw, and the combined leaderboard allows a direct comparison of the scores.

Russia's national team and silver medalist in 4-way Women at the FAI World Cup 2017 in Saarlouis, Bubble Trouble, had signed up for the 4-way Open Class competition at the Russian national indoor championships and finished in 3rd place with a team record 24.9 average.

The team name at the Russian Indoor Nationals, Bubble Struggle, indicates that there was a personnel change after the outdoor competition in Germany. Yulia Shuvaeva has replaced Zhanna Kazakova who was in the original Bubble lineup at the indoor meet in May and then won the silver medal for Russia in Saarlouis.

Yulia Shuvaeva had also taken Zhanna Kazakova's slot when she stepped back after a year with the Infra Red Band in 2013. She competed with the team at the FAI World Meet 2014 in Prostejov, and the Infra Red Band then continued for two more years throughout the FAI Mondial 2016 in Ottawa.

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	TochkaG	20	19	23	19	17	21	27	18	51	20	235	23.5
6	Altair	20	17	16	16	15	17	27	16	38	18	200	20.0
7	No Limits	19	16	16	16	15	18	25	12	33	15	185	18.5
8	Podel'niki	14	13	16	15	11	17	22	15	37	15	175	17.5
9	Noviy Povorot	16	14	14	15	11	14	22	13	34	14	167	16.7

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

New Bubble member Yulia Shuvaeva competed against two former Infra Red Band members at the Russian Indoor Nationals, even though their scores were posted on the separate 4-way Women leaderboard.

TochkaG's point Evgenia Korjova was an original Infra Red Band member. She competed with Bubble Trouble member Zhanna Kazakova at the FAI World Cup 2013 in Banja Luka and continued with the team until the end of the 2016 season.

Marinka Pukareva had joined the Infra Red Band for the 2016 season. She competed at the FAI Mondial 2016 in Ottawa and at the national championships in Tanay. Evgenia Korzhova and Marinka Pukareva then joined forces with Anna Linkova and Anastasia Tupicina for the new TochkaG lineup.

All four team members knew each other from training and competition in Russia. Infra Red Band competed under DZ Grozniy at the national championships in 2016, where Anna Linkova and Anastasia Tupicina were in the Girls lineup. Evgenia Korzhova and Marinka Pukareva won the meet with the Grozniy team before they formed TochkaG for the 2017 season.

Russian Nationals 2016		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	E,21,7	F,1,D,K	G,8,C,J	H,19,3	Q,4,11	5,22,B	15,10,O	18,20,A	M,12,L,9	13,P,2	14,16,N	Total	Avg
1	Black Cat	25	27	25	23	20	22	16	19	21	18	-	216	21.6
2	Barguzin	26	23	21	19	19	17	17	16	23	18	-	199	19.9
3	XO Team	20	22	19	15	17	14	14	16	20	14	13	171	17.1
3	DOSAAF RO	22	20	19	21	14	14	14	16	17	14	13	171	17.1
5	Tanay Wolves	19	19	18	15	15	13	11	15	17	14	-	156	15.6
6	DZ Grozniy	15	21	17	17	16	12	13	13	16	11	-	151	15.1
7	Tanayskiy Pryanik	15	17	15	14	13	13	10	12	15	11	-	135	13.5
7	Girls	13	18	13	12	14	13	10	13	15	14	-	135	13.5
9	UFO	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	3.0

TochkaG has plans for the 2018 season, as well. Bubble Trouble won the national indoor championship and is the national team in 4-way Women. However, next year's FAI/IPC indoor event is a world cup, where up to four teams can compete for a country in each category. The new all-female team plans to compete at the World Challenge 2018 in Bedford and travel to Bahrain for the FAI Indoor World Cup 2018.

The 23.5 average was a very promising start. TochkaG even won a round over Bubble Struggle and tied two other scores.

The 51-pointer for the fast sequence in Round 9 was not only four points better than the Bubble score, it also tied IFS-Moscow's 51-pointer in the same round.

It is the highest indoor score that an all-female team has posted ever since FAI/IPC added indoor competition to the list of sanctioned events with world records. The French Weembi Girls own the current highscore in 4-way Women after the 38-pointer in Round 5 at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017. TochkaG may take it away from France if Russia files for official recognition. Only 4-way Women team Aerokart Deep Blue ever scored higher with the 59-pointer for the Super Sequence in Round 2 of the World Challenge 2010...