posted Aug 3rd, 2019 - The wildfires in the northern parts of Siberia did not interfere with the Russian Nationals 2019, which took place at Skydive Tanay at the end of July, even though a state of emergency was declared for the region of Krasnoyarsk.

Siberia is a very large part of Russia, with an area of 13.1 million square kilometres, which account for 77% of Russia's land area. The current wildfires in Siberia were too far from Tanay to have an impact on the competition.

The situation still brings back memories of the FAI World Meet in Menzelinsk 2010, where smoke could be smelled and seen when an area not too far from Moscow was burning, as well. However, the world meet was easily completed in 2010, as were the national championships last week.

The Russian Nationals 2019 generated the first 8-way scores of the year from Russia, where Craig Girard is preparing the Tanay 8-way team for the pursuit of FAI gold medals next year on Tanay home turf. The Russian national 8-way team started with a 20.9 average, which is exactly the same scoring level that won the FAI silver medals at the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia.

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Russian Nationals 2019		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	N,E,D,16		G,F,Q,C,13		8,B,A,3		L,10,1		22,J,K,14		21,9,M		18,O,12		4,7,11		20,19,2		H,6,15		Total	Avg
1	Tanay	23	-2	22		21		23		20		20		18	-1	23		17		22		209	20.9
Rank	4-way Open	17,21,20		9,18,10		1,14,A		15,D,B,F		L,4,N,O		3,22,6		2,7,5		12,19,G		J,P,13,H		E,8,11		Total	Avg
1	Tanay Wolves	19		18		18		26		25		16		19		18		27		16	-1	202	20.2
2	Black Cat	19		17	-1	12	-5	28		22		16		20		17		24	-1	19		194	19.4
3	Sausages in Dough	17	-1	18		17		24	-1	21		17		19		17		25	-1	17		192	19.2
Rank	A/AA Class	M,A,P,9		M,Q,F,2		M,K,C,14		M,O,J,4		M,E,L,21		M,D,H,7		M,N,G,6		M,B,K,15		-		-		Total	Avg
1	Tula Sky	34		27		21		28		25		26		23		18		-		-		202	25.3
2	Meldonium	22		18		13		19		18		21		16		17		-		-		144	18.0
3	Red Heels	18		18		12		14		18		13		13		14		-		-		120	15.0
4	Four Fan	6		8		4		5		7		6		5		6		-		-		47	5.9

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There was no other Russian 8-way team challenging the national team, and the first real test for Tanay 8 will be the FAI World Cup in October this year. Most likely, the Russian team will face off with both U.S. top teams at Skydive Arizona, Paraclete XP8 and Golden Knights.

The Golden Knights outscored Russia in Australia last year and won the FAI outdoor gold medals for the U.S. delegation. Paraclete XP8 then won the next FAI gold medals at the FAI Indoor World Meet at Weembi Lille in April this year. Tanay placed 3rd behind the French 8-way indoor team.

The Russian national outdoor championship was much more competitive in the 4-way Open Class competition, where Black Cat were not able to defend their title of the past years. Black Cat had represented Russia in 4-way at FAI indoor and outdoor events for several years, before Tanay Wolves competed for Russia at the FAI World Meet 2018.

The Black Cat members of the past years have been training and competing with the Tanay 8-way team, as well, and they gave up 4-way training and competition for the pursuit of 8-way gold medals in Tanay 2020.

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FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	21	27	24	22	62	22	20	27	22	279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	21	27	24	24	60	26	22	27	20	277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	19	24	23	24	52	20	17	24	19	251	25.1
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	14	24	21	22	53	21	18	20	17	234	23.4
5	Echochamber	SE	25	16	21	17	20	48	14	18	21	15	215	21.5
6	Amnesya	IT	24	14	20	18	18	48	18	14	21	15	210	21.0
7	Satori XL	UK	21	14	21	19	19	37	19	17	18	16	201	20.1
7	Airheads	CH	22	14	19	17	18	44	16	16	18	17	201	20.1
9	Evolution	CA	21	13	22	18	15	43	15	15	19	15	196	19.6
10	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	14	17	17	16	45	15	14	18	15	192	19.2
11	Tanay Wolves	RU	22	14	18	17	16	35	17	14	18	14	185	18.5
12	Rotor Out	AU	21	13	18	14	16	32	13	13	18	14	172	17.2
13	CTR Optimum	BR	19	10	17	15	13	31	14	14	18	13	164	16.4
14	Papea Masculino	ES	17	13	18	13	13	28	14	14	13	12	155	15.5
15	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	16	11	13	14	15	28	15	15	14	12	153	15.3
16	Meraki	ZA	14	11	14	14	13	28	12	12	14	12	144	14.4
17	New Zealand	NZ	10	9	12	11	10	21	7	11	10	11	112	11.2
18	Paraguay	PY	10	8	10	7	9	17	7	8	10	8	94	9.4
19	Cyprus	CY	13	8	9	8	7	19	7	8	9	5	93	9.3

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However, there was an exception for this year's national championships. Timur Frank was the only member of the Tanay Wolves who competed in Australia last year, and he was allowed to recruit three Tanay 8-way members for this competition.

Dmitry Samokhval and Alexander Tychinskiy are not new to Tanay Wolves lineups. They competed with Timur Frank and Alexander Furman for the Russian delegation in 4-way Open at the FAI World Cup 2017, together with Black Cat and Barguzin.

Tanay Wolves had a complete makeover when the members of the Tanay 8-way team dropped 4-way competition and focused exclusively on their prime event. Russian 8-way legend Oleg Shalamyhin became the new player coach, and world-class competitor Alena Chistova joined Timur Frank and Alexander Furman for the 2018 season. The new lineup competed for Russia at the FAI World Meet 2018 and finished with the next new team record average.

Tanay 8 members Dmitry Samokhval and Alexander Tychinskiy were back for the Tanay Wolves at the national championship last week, and they brought another 8-way team mate to the lineup. Vladimir Pavlenko completed Timor Frank's 4-way team. He is one of the most experienced and accomplished Russian 4-way and 8-way competitors in history. Result of the new lineup was the first 20+ average for Timor Frank and his Tanay Wolves.