posted Aug 15th, 2018 - Russia's national team in 4-way Open, Black Cat, is one of the longest standing 4-way teams in the world. The NSL News has covered the Black Cat battles with other Russian world class teams for the national top spot since the team project was launched in 2005.

Black Cat eventually won the national championships and represented Russia for the first time at the FAI Mondial 2018. Valentin Ilin (Outside Center), Vasily Korotkov (Point), Alexander Kvochur (Tail) and Evgeny Stashchenko (Inside Center), with Vadim Niyazov on camera, finished six points behind France in 4th place.

The Black Cat members also competed for Tanay in 8-way at the same event, and Tanay won the bronze medals for Russia.

It was a challenging task for competitors with double duties in 4-way and 8-way at the FAI Mondial 2018, as both events were not coordinated well for teams that competed in both categories. All teams had to be at the competition site most of the time, prepared for either of the two Formation Skydiving events to be called to action. It was difficult for teams with double duties to perform at their top level in both events.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	24	25	35	26	19	22	27	39	23	22	262	26.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	21	23	31	26	18	22	27	40	23	23	254	25.4
3	France	FR	21	20	30	21	18	21	27	39	21	20	238	23.8
4	Black Cat	RU	22	20	30	24	17	21	24	33	21	19	231	23.1
5	Qatar Tigers	QA	21	20	30	24	17	20	23	36	17	18	226	22.6

The Tanay 8-way team and Black Cat have both been training and competing under the same circumstances ever since. Black Cat is still the strongest 4-way team in Russia, and they were planning to compete for Russia once again in 4-way and 8-way both. However, 8-way training and competition have become the top priority for Russia, as the NSL News reported on 9 February 2018.

Russia is one of the most serious medal contenders in 8-way and has the opportunity to turn bronze into silver this year, as France has not registered an 8-way team for this year's FAI World Meet in Australia. In fact, Tanay is even looking at the gold medal position that the Golden Knights have owned since 2012.

A similar situation with double duties in both events, as at Skydive Chicago in 2016, could become a serious obstacle in the battle for 8-way gold medals this year. The officials of the Russian skydiving federation, the Tanay 8-way team and Black Cat thus decided together to change plans for Australia and have the Tanay members compete only in 8-way.

FAI Mondial 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way		12,A,16	18,15,O	1,F,E,C	17,B,14	10,2,20	21,11,G	J,5,19	L,M,K,7	D,8,4	3,13,Q	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	31	25	26	22	20	22	19	26	24	24	239	23.9
2	France	FR	22	20	25	18	16	19	17	23	19	20	199	19.9
3	Tanay	RU	23	19	25	17	14	16	16	21	20	19	190	19.0
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	20	15	7	10	13	16	15	15	146	14.6
5	Microclim8	UK	15	14	16	14	11	13	13	14	13	17	140	14.0

It would probably be next to impossible for a 4-way team to win a set of FAI medals this year without a total focus on this event only. The competition in 4-way is stronger than ever, with the reigning NMP PCH HayaBusa world champions from Belgium, Arizona Airspeed and Aerodyne Realfly from France, plus the Qatar Tigers in close pursuit of 4-way Open Class medals.

Black Cat was in medal contention at the FAI Mondial 2016 after a reasonable amount of 4-way training, and the Tanay 8-way team did not have the same goals as this year. The situation has changed now, and Black Cat has not trained much in 4-way at all, while Tanay will have completed significantly more than 600 training jumps before Round 1 in Australia.

This does not mean that Russia will not have a 4-way team in Australia. The same group of decision makers also decided to send another team downunder and compete in 4-way Open. The Tanay Wolves will represent Russia at the upcoming World Championship of Formation Skydiving, while Tanay's 8-way team and the Black Cat members can fully concentrate on their prime event.

The Tanay Wolves have a new lineup, guided by former 8-way world champion and Russian 4-way expert Oleg Shalamyhin, and the new situation has an impact on the 4-way Women event, as well. The NSL News will follow up with the introduction of the Tanay Wolves and the related implications.