posted Feb 11th, 2020 - Bad news came from Russia in January. The Tanay 8-way team was in winter training at Skydive Dubai, the place where they are preparing for this year's FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving in August.

Team member Andrey Barabash, founder and sponsor of the 8-way team, who is also the President of the Russian Skydiving Federation and host of the world meet at Skydive Tanay, broke his leg in one of the training jumps while landing his parachute.

It's a very unfortunate timing - if there is anything like a fortunate timing for an injury. His Russian 8-way team has been on the way to bringing back new FAI 8-way gold medals and the William H. Ottley Sword for Formation Skydiving Competition, also known as the Excalibur, to Russia. The injury will keep the complete Tanay lineup at least from outdoor training for a little while.

Andrey Barabash has the most experienced alternate in Formation Skydiving history on his 8-way bench, and Alexey Minaev was able to step in right away to continue with the training camp. However, Andrey Barabash will have to decide how to move on with his Tanay 8-way team until Round 1 at the world meet. The original plan has to be altered.

---

FAI World Cup 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		13,11,16		P,22,4		O,7,21		9,20,G		18,15,L		K,10,3		6,14,C		1,M,A,17		F,D,Q,8		2,5,E		Total	Avg
1	Tanay 8	RU	19		26		18		20		23		21	-1	20		24		20		16		207	20.7
2	France	FR	20		24		18		19	-1	21		22	-1	19		23		19		17		202	20.2
3	Paraclete XP8	US	21	-1	24	-1	16	-1	18		21		20	-2	19		22	-1	19		18		198	19.8
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	18		21		16		18		16	-3	21	-1	17		17	-1	16		14	-1	174	17.4
5	Qatar Falcons	QA	16	-1	20	-1	14	-1	13	-3	17	-1	12	-5	15		19		15		14		155	15.5
6	Airbus	DE	14	-1	15		12		15		15	-1	15		12	-1	15		14	-1	12		139	13.9
7	Monster	US	12		13	-1	10	-1	12		14		13		12		15		11	-1	10		122	12.2
8	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	11		16		10		11		9	-3	13	-1	14		10	-1	13		11		118	11.8
9	Groomed	UK	7	-2	9		8	-1	9		10		7		8	-1	10		13		7		88	8.8

---

The 8-way situation has been very promising for the Russian team. Andrey Barabash began selecting his 8-way lineup carefully in 2013. Two of the early members (Valentin Ilin, Alexander Tychinskiy) are still in his current lineup, which was complete when Vladimir Pavlenko joined at the beginning of the 2017 season.

The final Tanay 8 lineup won silver medals at the FAI World Cup 2017, and confirmed the 2nd place a year later at the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia.

Another year later, Tanay 8 turned the silver medals into gold at the FAI World Cup 2019. They had first won the 8-way competition as a guest team at the USPA Nationals 2019, where they defeated Paraclete XP8 and Golden Knights both. Then they traveled to Eloy and also left the new French 8-way team behind.

Andrey Barabash made new plans for Tanay 8 and coach Craig Girard for the world meet season, which were on the same intensity level as in 2019.

---

FAI World Meet 2003			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		1,11,12	M,J,E,10	K,16,6	13,14,5	D,22,4	9,C,Q,N	F,19,21	2,20,L	18,B,3	8,P,7	G,O,17,H	Total	Avg
1	Russia	RU	23	19	24	16	26	21	19	18	21	15	19	202	20.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	19	24	17	23	20	19	17	24	16	19	202	20.2
3	Maubeuge	FR	25	17	21	13	25	20	16	16	24	16	-	193	19.3
4	Ex3mo	IT	15	14	19	12	15	14	13	12	17	13	-	144	14.4
5	VNE	UK	11	14	18	11	13	14	14	12	16	-	-	123	13.7
6	Australia	AU	16	14	16	11	13	11	14	8	15	-	-	118	13.1
7	Germany	DE	14	12	11	8	12	10	10	9	12	-	-	98	10.9
8	Austria	AT	0	5	7	6	7	5	7	4	8	-	-	49	5.4

---

Paraclete XP8 made a few adjustments in the lineup and continued with Niklas Hemlin and Mikhail Markine for Airspeed XP8. The French 8-way team learned in Eloy, as well, that their focus on 8-way training and competition was really necessary to keep up with the Russian efforts.

Airspeed XP8 and France both have been in 8-way training ever since, parallel to Tanay 8 with the same lineup going into their 4th year. Andrey Barabash's recent injury is now an unexpected obstacle that will make it more difficult for Tanay 8 to defend the world's 8-way top spot successfully on home turf in August.

Airspeed XP8 and France will not slow down, while Andrey Barabash is recovering. Alexey Minaev, Russian 8-way world champion of 2001 and 2003, can surely fill the slot sufficiently until Andrey Barabash is back and ready for 8-way outdoor action.

Alexey Minaev will have an active reunion with his 8-way world champion team mates of 2001 and 2003 in the meantime. He and Vladimir Pavlenko, Vasily Korotkov and Evgeny Stashchenko won the 8-way gold medals together in 2001. Tanay 8 member Dmitry Samokhval was also in the golden lineup of 2003.