posted Feb 5th, 2020 - The Russian team IFS-Moscow connects the recent NSL News updates after the Wind Games with the topic of teams and competitors with double-duties. Monday's NSL Live Talk conversation with Gary Smith, Jeremie Rollett and Andrew Starr included their own experiences with competing in 4-way and 8-way at the same event.

Gary Smith did not train or compete seriously in both categories at the same time, even though his South African 4-way team Equanimity, 4-way bronze medalist of 1997, competed in 4-way and 8-way both at the FAI World Cup 1996. DeLand Majik and DeLand Fire, his world champion teams of 2004 and 2006, focused only on 4-way competition.

Jeremie Rollett has more intensive experiences with double duties. He first won 8-way gold medals for France in 2006. Then he and his team mates Julien Degen, Mathieu and Guillaume Bernier tried to win in 4-way and 8-way both two years later on home turf in Maubeuge, France. They won again in 8-way and missed the 4-way gold medals by one single point behind Airspeed Odyssey.

Only Mathieu Bernier continued with training and competition in both events for two more years and became the only competitor in Formation Skydiving history who won gold in 4-way and 8-way at the same world meet. Jeremie Rollett won his 4-way gold medal in Menzelinsk 2010.

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Wind Games 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		Q,F,6,14		1,13,4		8,J,15		O,9,D,5		21,A,P,H		N,C,20,12		7,G,K,19		10,16,22		17,E,11		M,B,3,L		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	-1	29		28	-1	44	-3	45		29		35		25		34		47		348	34.8
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	34		24	-1	29		45	-2	41		29		34	-1	23		34		39	-1	332	33.2
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	33		25		27	-1	44	-1	41		26		30	-3	23		30	-2	41	-2	320	32.0
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	27	-3	20	-3	25	-2	45	-2	36	-1	25	-1	30	-1	23		29	-2	33	-5	293	29.3
5	ISR FireFlash	BE	30		23		26		39		36		22	-1	27	-2	20		29		29	-4	281	28.1
6	Weembi Unicorns	IN	28		23		26		42		36		23		29		20		22	-4	26	-3	275	27.5
7	NFTO	UK	28		21		22		38		36		21		27	-1	18		24	-3	32	-1	267	26.7
8	Echochamber	SE	28		21		22		37		35		21	-1	23	-2	19		26		29	-4	261	26.1
9	Nephtys Weembi	FR	26		19	-1	20	-1	35		32		22		26	-1	19		22	-2	32	-1	253	25.3
10	Oceanside AtomiX	DE	25	-2	21		19	-2	31	-1	31		19		27		17	-1	22	-1	31		243	24.3

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Andrew Starr has his turn this year, even though he will not compete in both events at the world meet. However, the Golden Knights 8-way team will train and compete as usual, and their team captain will accommodate his SDC Rhythm XP schedule by balancing his time with both teams.

He competed with SDC Rhythm XP at the Wind Games last week, and the NSL News pointed out yesterday that there were other competitors who are in a similar situation with this year's double-duties.

One of them is Dmitry Samokhval, who has been training and competing with indoor team IFS-Moscow since the team was founded in 2017. All team members have also been outdoor competitors earlier in their skydiving careers. Dmitry Samokhval, Yury Drozdov and Egor Gusev trained and competed together with SportLoto.

Yury Drozdov, Dmitry Komkov and Dmitry Samokhval go even further back together. They trained and competed with Ocean 5, one of the best Russian 4-way teams between 2008 and 2010. Egor Gusev was a Kaktus Hunter at that time.

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Wind Games 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		Q,F,6,14		1,13,4		8,J,15		O,9,D,5		21,A,P,H		N,C,20,12		7,G,K,19		10,16,22		17,E,11		M,B,3,L		18,2,D		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	-1	29		28	-1	44	-3	45		29		35		25		-		-		-		267	33.4
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	34		24	-1	29		45	-2	41		29		34	-1	23		-		-		-		259	32.4
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	33		25		27	-1	44	-1	41		26		30	-3	23		-		-		-		249	31.1
4	IFS-Moscow	RU	27	-3	20	-3	25	-2	45	-2	36	-1	25	-1	30	-1	23		-		-		-		231	28.9
5	Weembi Unicorns	IN	28		23		26		42		36		23		29		20		-		-		-		227	28.4
6	ISR FireFlash	BE	30		23		26		39		36		22	-1	27	-2	20		-		-		-		223	27.9

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Dmitry Samokhval was then selected for the Russian 8-way team Barkli that competed at the FAI World Meet 2014 in Prostejov. There he won his 8-way silver medal, while he was also training and competing indoors with SportLoto. It was not his first 8-way medal though. He was already on the Evolution Pro lineup and had won an 8-way bronze medal in Croatia 2004, then again in Germany 2006.

He was selected for Tanay 8 in 2015 when Andrey Barabash made his plans for the next Russian 8-way top team, and his 4-way training and competition was reduced to indoor events with SportLoto and then IFS-Moscow. The priority is still on 8-way with the Tanay team, as Russia is on the way to bringing back the earlier 8-way glory, after the 1st places at the USPA Nationals 2019 and at the FAI World Cup 2019.

Dmitry Samokhval is still a world-class 4-way competitor at the same time, as the 4th place at the Wind Games was showing. IFS-Moscow is well known as a world-class 4-way indoor team and was expected to finish in or near the medal positions. However, it required an effort to control the penalty situation at the Wind Games, as the NSL News reported on January 30th.

IFS-Moscow was still in 6th place at the end of the first meet day. The Russian team cleaned up the performance in the following three rounds and created a 4-point lead over Weembi Unicorns after Round 8. Seven more point deductions in the last two rounds kept IFS-Moscow from posting another 30+ average, however, the 4th place was well secured. Dmitry Samokhval is now switching back to 8-way outdoor training and competition.

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Wind Games 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		Q,F,6,14		1,13,4		8,J,15		O,9,D,5		21,A,P,H		N,C,20,12		7,G,K,19		10,16,22		17,E,11		M,B,3,L		18,2,D		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	-1	29		28	-1	44	-3	45		-		-		-		-		-		-		178	35.6
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	34		24	-1	29		45	-2	41		-		-		-		-		-		-		173	34.6
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	33		25		27	-1	44	-1	41		-		-		-		-		-		-		170	34.0
4	Weembi Unicorns	IN	28		23		26		42		36		-		-		-		-		-		-		155	31.0
5	ISR FireFlash	BE	30		23		26		39		36		-		-		-		-		-		-		154	30.8
6	IFS-Moscow	RU	27	-3	20	-3	25	-2	45	-2	36	-1	-		-		-		-		-		-		153	30.6

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