posted Aug 2nd, 2002 - Russia has a history of hosting first-class international Formation Skydiving competitions that did not only begin with the FAI World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk, now followed by the FAI Mondial Tanay 2020. The series of Malevsky Cup events began in 2002. FAI/IPC eventually recognized the Malevsky Cup as a "First Category Event", on the same level as world meets and world cups, as the NSL News reported on 4 March 2004.

The event, with the new official name "2004 Open European Championship and the IPC Anton Malevsky Memorial World Cup", was in its third year by then. The NSL News covered the inaugural event in 2002 with reports from competitors in Stupino and traveled to Russia for the third Malevsky Cup in 2004 and in the following years.

The first Malevsky Cup in 2002 was a historic event. DeLand Majik finished the ten rounds with a new 23.1 world record average and became the first team in the history of Formation Skydiving competition with 20-pointers or higher in each round.

Airspeed Vertical, reigning 4-way world champions of 2001, and DeLand Majik met for the second time in 2002, after the first confrontation at the Shamrock Showdown. Both committed to visit the Malevsky Cup 2002 for a rematch. Eventually, neither Airspeed Vertical nor DeLand Majik won the USPA Nationals the same year. The Golden Knights stole the USPA gold medals in 2002 and competed for the U.S. delegation at the FAI World Meet 2003. The NSL News posted two Malevsky Cup updates from the 2002 event, which have not been posted yet at the NSL website.

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Malevsky Memorial 2002			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		4,11,F	J,H,20,15	6,7,2	C,O,5,8	1,12,9	B,E,18,10	P,D,K,N,14	M,22,G,3	13,L,21	Q,19,17	Total	Avg
1	DeLand Majik	US	21	25	21	23	20	22	29	21	24	25	231	23.1
2	Airspeed Vertical	US	23	22	22	24	19	23	26	22	19	21	221	22.1
3	Russia	RU	20	19	19	21	18	18	24	17	19	18	193	19.3
4	Endeavor	CH	13	16	17	17	15	16	21	11	15	-	141	15.7
5	Japan	JP	13	15	15	11	10	10	15	12	12	-	113	12.6
6	Denmark	DK	11	12	14	14	11	9	17	12	12	-	112	12.4
7	Netherlands	NL	10	9	12	13	12	10	14	9	-	-	89	11.1

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2 August 2002: Did You Know that Majik beats Airspeed again in Russia?

Both Airspeed Vertical and DeLand Majik kept it kind of quiet when they decided to meet in Russia for another showdown before the U.S. Nationals. Just a month away from the most important event of the 2002 season for both teams, it was questionable how this event would fit in the teams' preparation plan for the upcoming U.S. Nationals.

Airspeed member Neal Houston mentioned in an interview with the NSL News in July that Airspeed veterans Jack Jefferies and Dan BC had recommended not to attend the meet in Russia at this time. Golden Knight John Hoover was of the same opinion as Jefferies and BC and kept his team at home.

DeLand Majik member Gary Smith told the NSL News on the day of the departure to Russia that his team will try to not take this meet too serious. Majik had just come back home from another long trip to Saudi Arabia for an invitational meet.

However, fact is that Airspeed and Majik both accepted the invitation from Russia and traveled to Europe last week. Together with several Russian teams and other teams from Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark, they competed at the Malevsky Memorial Meet near Moscow this week. Here is a short overview of the history of this event (source: event website):

"On November 6, 2001, Anton Malevsky died in a skydiving accident. Anton V. Malevsky was a prominent Russian businessman. He began skydiving in the fall of 2000, though he had made his first parachute jump during his military service as a paratrooper in Afghanistan. The Skydiving community remembers him as a very cheerful, kind and generous person. Not only did he skydive a lot himself (he made over 300 jumps in a year) - he also promoted the development of our sport in every way possible. Thanks to his sponsorship, the Russian 8-way team won the first place at the World Championship in 2001 in Spain (the first and the only time - Soviet period included - when the Russian team raised on the first step of the podium). Undoubtedly, there is no way to fill in such loss. These competitions are organized in order to retain the memory of this extraordinary person."

The NSL News audience knows the current situation in Russia. After nine rounds, DeLand Majik is six points ahead of Airspeed Vertical. It looks as if the showdown in Russia will hurt Airspeed even more than at the first meet with Majik in March at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2002. The 4-way world expected the current world champions to be back on top after four months of hard work. But Majik does not seem to give way.

Of course, the Malevsky Memorial is not over yet. The last round is scheduled for tomorrow. And the main event is still to come in four weeks - no matter what happens in Russia. However, there is no doubt that Majik will gain even more confidence. And their August training has been carefully prepared. Russia did not even see Majik in full force yet, as tail Solly Williams reports from the event site:

"We had a rough first day. Joey and I had transportation problems getting to the meet on time which included a high speed accident on the highway. We got bumped around a bit and fortunately we didn't have to jump the next day. Airspeed went up and made Round 1. They thumped us on the opening round. We've had a few good jumps here. But in general, we have been weak out the door. Guess we could have practiced out this plane before the meet to eliminate that. We do Round 10 in the morning and if all goes well, we should be the first team on the planet with a 23 average."

That says it all. History is waiting around the corner. France just posted a new world record for a single round. Majik may post the highest meet average for a ten-round event tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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5 August 2002: Did You Know that Majik's 23.1 is the highest 10-round meet average in history?

Round 10 at the Malevsky Memorial Meet in Russia was held last Saturday. After nine rounds were completed on Thursday, the teams had a whole day to prepare for the final round. The NSL audience knew on Thursday that DeLand Majik was six points ahead of Airspeed Vertical. However, the Fat Lady would not sing before Saturday evening.

Round 10 did not change much anymore. Actually, it made things only worse for Airspeed and better for Majik. Both teams raced to 25 points in time. But Majik was clean, while Airspeed had to swallow two more penalties in the last round. One Phalanx was incomplete, and the following transition did not show clean separation as a consequence of the first mistake.

Maybe Airspeed tried to make it up as close as possible to Majik and took chances. Maybe Craig Girard's ill stomach bothered the team performance. However, it was the second time in a meet this year that Airspeed had to come from behind. And it did not work out well.

Airspeed was down by only one point after eight rounds. With two more rounds to go and a very solid performance by Majik, Airspeed was forced to attack. The following Round 9 was the first disaster for Airspeed. They lost five more points in that one round, including a penalty. Majik was now six points ahead. Realistically, the meet was over after Round 9.

Solly Williams indicated in his message from Russia that Majik would still have to perform well to post a new world record average score above the benchmark of 23.0 points. Obviously, Majik was not planning to take the safe road and just carry the gold medal home. They had the new record in mind.

With both teams probably having different goals in mind for this round, the pressure was still on. And Majik handled it well again. The new record score was posted on Saturday, and Majik ended up ten points ahead of Airspeed - with an impressive result. Airspeed surely did not perform on their top level. However, the new record average of 23.1 shows that it was not only a suffering Airspeed performance that gave Majik the victory in Russia. Majik just seems to be in great shape.

Even Golden Knights team captain John Hoover was impressed. He informed the NSL News that the Golden Knights were not invited to the meet in Russia. And he mentioned that "Majik are obviously the favored team going into the Nationals." The momentum surely seems to be on Majik's side.

The Majik team members will all be back in town on Tuesday to begin the final training session before the U.S. Nationals 2002. Skydive DeLand owner Bob Hallett plans a welcome and record celebration party Tuesday night at his Perfect Spot restaurant. And the NSL TV will hopefully be able to obtain Majik footage from Russia.