posted Apr 23rd, 2021 - Yesterday's 8-way update was related to the Shamrock Showdown Cloud and the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020. It pointed out the new duel between Kirk Verner and Mathieu Bernier for the next gold medal in their respective collections.

Their 8-way lineups benefit heavily from the experiences that both have collected over their long time on the top level in the sport. However, there is another 8-way team with probably even more competition experiences on their side, the Russian 8-way team from Tanay.

In fact, the other three 8-way medal contenders for the world meet are even relatively new to 8-way competition on the top level, including the French 8-way team with the youngest lineup, who are currently on the top of the Shamrock Showdown leaderboard.

Qatar has had an 8-way team at world meets only since 2012 and missed the 8-way competition at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2014 in Prostejov. The Qatar Falcons then placed 4th in 2016 and won bronze medals in Australia 2018.

---

FAI World Meet 2001			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		16,P,13	1,Q,O,5	B,K,6,8	15,9,19	21,12,20	L,7,G,H	J,F,M,C,22	3,18,17	E,11,A,14	4,D,2	Total	Avg
1	Russia	RU	19	15	18	17	17	21	22	22	19	23	193	19.3
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	19	17	17	17	19	23	21	21	19	19	192	19.2
3	France	FR	16	17	16	15	19	20	20	18	18	20	179	17.9
4	Australia	AU	14	13	13	12	9	15	15	15	11	13	130	13.0
5	Netherlands	NL	14	12	14	14	10	11	13	14	11	13	126	12.6
6	Germany	DE	13	9	11	12	12	11	14	12	11	12	117	11.7
7	Great Britain	UK	13	11	5	12	12	11	13	10	11	-	98	10.9
8	Spain	ES	12	11	11	11	7	10	12	11	11	-	96	10.7
9	Brazil	BR	10	8	9	8	7	5	8	8	4	-	67	7.4
10	Canada	CA	8	2	7	6	6	5	6	7	5	-	52	5.8

---

Only Mathieu Bernier and Kevin Mansion have ever competed for France in 8-way at an outdoor world meet, Mathieu Bernier in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012, Kevin Mansion in 2014. Jeremie Rollett was his 8-way coach in 2014, while Mathieu Bernier was one of the two player-coaches in the French 4-way team.

Even AZXP8 is not a lineup with eight experienced 8-way competitors. Kirk Verner, Matt Davidson and Brian Krause are former 8-way world champions and bring in a wealth of knowledge and experiences. However, the other five team members have not even competed yet at an outdoor world meet in 8-way.

The Russian 8-way team from Tanay is the leader in world meet experiences, and they already used it very successfully at the two 8-way top events in 2019.

First they won the 8-way competition at the USPA Nationals 2019 as a guest team and then defended the top position successfully at the FAI Outdoor World Cup a month later.

There is no 8-way competitor in the Tanay lineup who has not competed for medals at a world championship yet.

---

FAI Outdoor 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

---

Tanay 8 - France - XP8 - Qatar Falcons at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019

---

Vladimir Pavlenko, Vasily Korotkov, Evgeny Stashchenko and alternate Alexey Minaev have won their own 8-way gold medals in 2001 and 2003, and active Tanay member Dmitry Samokhval was the alternate. Alexander Tychinskiy and Sergey Yalpaev have collected other world meet 8-way medals since 2010.

Andrey Barabash, host of the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020, and Valentin Ilin have been training and competing together with the Tanay team since 2013. Together they won 8-way bronze medals at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2016 and silver in Australia 2018.

It was exactly the same lineup, including team videographer Kirill Kirillov, who won the FAI silver medals at the last world meet. They turned the FAI silver into gold a year later at the world cup in Eloy, and it is also the same lineup on home turf this year in Tanay.

The history of the lineup and the 8-way experiences make the Russian 8-way team actually the top contender for the upcoming world meet, even though France and AZXP8 have posted impressive 8-way scores on the current Shamrock Showdown Cloud leaderboard. Tanay's 8-way scores and videos are on the way to the NSL Cloud and then to the InTime judging panel...

---

Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way AAA/Open		1,J,3		Q,K,D,H,L		F,B,C,22		18,E,21		M,5,10		4,G,2		15,8,11		16,19,O		7,P,14		9,12,20		N,17,A,6		Total	Avg
1	France	FR	30	-2	25		28		19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		102	25.5
2	Airspeed XP8	US	28	-2	23	-3	24	-1	19		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		94	23.5
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	23	-3	19	-2	21	-1	15		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		78	19.5
4	Rhythm 8	US	14	-1	13	-1	14	-1	9		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		50	12.5
5	Sandbaggers	US	8		5		7		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		20	6.7
6	Tanay 8	RU	-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		-	-

---