posted Jan 2nd, 2021 - The Russian Indoor Nationals 2020 included the championship in 4-way Women, which used the same AAA competition draw as the 4-way Open Class teams did. Three all-female lineups (Bubbles, Antitela, DDW-Team) competed for the 4-way Women title, and the defending champions walked away with the next Russian gold medals without facing a serious challenger.

It was still a very competitive situation between the two teams behind Bubbles. Antitela and DDW-Team were both prepared for the championship by coach Egor Gusev, who is a founding member of IFS-Moscow, this year's 4-way Open Class winner.

It became a 4-point battle between his two teams, while his former IFS-Moscow team mate Alena Chistova was coaching Bubbles to this year's 4-way Women title. Antitela and DDW-Team both had also competed at the Covid Cup in October that Bubbles did not attend. Antitela increased the meet average significantly in the two months between the two meets and turned the table at the championship competition.

Bubbles coach Alena Chistova is one of the most experienced Formation Skydiving competitors in Russia. She was in the Russian 4-way team Wild Wind who competed at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2003, and she joined the Russian 8-way team Evolution later.

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Russian Indoor Nationals 2020		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	22,9,11	6,12,N	16,L,7	B,F,P,21	4,K,G,8	O,C,H,3	17,5,E	J,10,20	A,1,D,14	18,19,M	Total	Avg
1	IFS-Moscow	25	26	34	42	29	35	39	22	29	27	308	30.8
2	VDV	25	26	34	37	24	37	41	24	28	28	304	30.4
3	Russian Thunder	25	24	34	38	26	34	37	20	26	26	290	29.0
4	Bubbles	21	23	27	33	25	29	37	22	25	23	265	26.5
5	Team 42	18	19	26	32	22	27	25	19	26	23	237	23.7
6	Antitela	20	20	26	27	19	29	29	17	23	23	233	23.3
7	DDW-Team	20	17	25	31	17	29	33	17	22	18	229	22.9
8	No Limits	16	17	24	28	20	27	26	17	20	20	215	21.5
9	Quatro	19	18	21	24	17	26	29	16	18	21	209	20.9
10	5th Element	19	15	21	28	20	24	27	13	18	15	200	20.0
11	Bumblbee	14	15	21	24	17	23	23	14	19	14	184	18.4

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Bubbles - Antitela - DDW-Team at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2020

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She switched back to 4-way and formed the 4-way Women team Bubble Trouble in 2017, together with Olga Bykova, Zhanna Kazakova and Tatiana Polyanskaya. Olga Bykova is now the only original team member, and her former team mate Alena Chistova is coaching the current Bubbles lineup.

Current members Olga Bykova, Maria Odinokova and Yulia Shuvaeva came together for the new Bubbles lineup later in 2017, and Alena Chistova was still an active team member. The same lineup finished with a 25.5 average at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019 and missed the bronze medals by seven points.

Alena Chistova had already competed with IFS-Moscow a few weeks earlier at the World Challenge 2019 where she replaced Dmitry Samokhval for the meet. IFS-Moscow finished in 3rd place with a still standing 30.9 team record average.

She stepped back from active training and competition after her time with Bubbles and IFS-Moscow in 2019 and continued with coaching.

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FAI Indoor World Meet 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		M,K,D,14		Q,4,5		P,E,9,15		3,N,G,2		6,1,8		F,12,11		13,22,J		H,L,B,18		O,20,A,17		21,7,19		Total	Avg
1	Nephtys Weembi	FR	34		27		35		25		23		25		23		33	-1	31		24		280	28.0
2	NFTO	UK	34		26	-1	34		28	-1	23		24		24		34		28	-1	23	-2	278	27.8
3	XPG4	US	34		26		33		24		21	-1	24		24		28	-4	25		23		262	26.2
4	Bubble Hubble	RU	29	-2	25	-2	33		24	-1	22		23		22		31		25		21	-2	255	25.5
5	China	CN	31	-3	26	-1	31		22	-2	23		24		22	-1	30	-3	22	-3	23	-2	254	25.4
6	Team X	SE	26		25		28	-1	24		20		22		23		28	-1	24		23		243	24.3
7	No Mercy	PL	29		22		25	-1	21		19		17	-1	21		23	-5	20	-1	22		219	21.9
8	Skynamite	DE	28	-1	20	-2	26		20		17	-1	17	-2	19		26		18	-2	19	-2	210	21.0
9	Voss Vind Girls	NO	27	-2	22		24	-1	18	-1	18		19		20		23	-1	19	-1	19		209	20.9

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Bubbles at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2019

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Bubbles recruited Svetlana Klimenko for the open slot, and the new lineup won the 4-way Women competition at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2019 with a 23.4 average, still with original member Olga Bykova and Alena Chistova now coaching the team.

A year later, the new Bubbles lineup has arrived an average point ahead of the level where the team had performed at the indoor world meet in April 2019. It is a very promising progression that could put serious pressure on the FAI medal winners of 2019 (France, NFTO, XPG4).

Alena Chistova seems to like her coaching position, even though she would probably still make each 4-way and 8-way team perform stronger as an active competitor.

Her coaching work with Bubbles is obviously very successful, and she also helped the new No Limits lineup to a 21.5 team record average, after the team touched the 20-average benchmark first time (20.2) last year. Bubbles now have to wait for an event where they will be able to take on the international top contenders in 4-way Women.