posted Dec 27th, 2021 - The NSL News mentioned the comeback of the Russian 4-way team Airborne VDV with the update on December 23rd, which covered the 2-point battle between HF Cubs and VDV on the top of the AAA Class leaderboard at the 1st Dubai International Tunnel Championship (DIPC).

Both teams were and are national 4-way teams for their countries, HF Cubs first in 4-way Junior, now in 4-way Women for the Czech Republic, Airborne DVD was supposed to compete for Russia in 4-way Open at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020. The tragic plane crash right before the world meet kept Airborne VDV from competing at the event.

Both teams are now preparing for the FAI Indoor World Cup in April next year, which is supposed to take place in April at the windtunnel in Charleroi, Belgium, where they will compete in different categories as top contenders for FAI indoor medals.

The ten rounds at the 1st DITC indoor meet in Dubai were actually not the first competition for Airborne VDV after the outdoor world meet that they missed. The Russian Indoor Nationals 2021 took place at St. Petersburg's Flystation in November, and the new Airborne VDV lineup, with Georgy Miroshnichenko back in the lineup, took the 2nd place three months after the plane crash, and a few weeks before traveling to Dubai.

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1st DITC 2021			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		22,B,G,20	J,2,A,10	M,12,7	5,1,15	E,9,19	17,H,N,8	K,21,F,11	Q,O,6,P	C,13,D,18	3,14,L	Total	Avg
1	HF Cubs	CZ	20	26	27	24	32	30	24	35	24	24	266	26.6
2	VDV	RU	22	23	26	21	30	30	25	38	25	24	264	26.4
3	Amnesya	IT	20	20	21	17	24	25	23	27	23	19	219	21.9
4	Agera FS 2022	NO	17	20	21	20	22	24	20	29	20	18	211	21.1
5	Papea Masculino	ES	20	17	22	15	23	20	21	27	20	19	204	20.4
6	Kopassus Papua	ID	19	14	16	15	17	15	16	23	9	13	157	15.7
7	Termanu	ID	13	12	9	10	13	11	12	17	14	9	120	12.0

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HF Cubs - VDV at the 1st DITC 2021

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This year's national indoor championship featured once again the three strongest Russian 4-way teams. IFS-Moscow was the defending champion team after winning in 2020 with a 30.8 average, four points ahead of the Airborne DVD 2020 lineup (Oleg Borovin, Alexey Izmalkin, Sergey Seregin, Evgeny Shatnenko). Georgiy Miroshnichenko was still competing with Russian Thunder at that time.

The Bubbles 4-way Women team finished in 4th place in 2020 before leaving Russian Thunder behind at the Russian Indoor Cup 2021 in April this year. They sent a message to France with the 28.4 average by the new lineup, who were also training for the 4-way Women competition at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020. The following surprising upset in 4-way Women at the outdoor world meet has been well documented.

Another three months later, the same Bubbles lineup sent the next message to the world at the Russian Indoor Nationals. The new 4-way outdoor world champions in 4-way Women are not done, and they are getting even stronger. Once again, they posted a new team record average (29.6) and now took the 1st place on the AAA Class leaderboard. For four rounds it looked like there would be a competition for the top spot before Bubbles eventually ran away from the other two Russian top contenders, both with all-male lineups.

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Russian Indoor Nationals 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	15,5,10		20,3,17		1,2,11		J,G,P,N,18		21,H,M,19		13,L,4		8,A,D,O		6,22,B		F,7,E,9		12,K,Q,16		Total	Avg
1	Bubbles	24	-2	24		22		34	-1	31		28		33	-1	24	-2	47		29		296	29.6
2	Airborne VDV	23	-1	23		23		35		29	-1	25	-1	31		25		43	-1	24	-1	281	28.1
3	IFS-Moscow	24	-1	24		23		32	-2	22		27	-1	32	-2	20	-3	40	-4	29		273	27.3
4	Quartet	17		20		21		29		25		19		30		17		36		24		238	23.8
5	DanDelion WN	20		21		18		25		22		24		27		20		36		24		237	23.7
6	Antibodies	19		18		18		29		24		22		25		21		35		20		231	23.1
7	No Limits	14		17		19		26		22		19		26		18		31		21		213	21.3
8	Bumblbee	15		17		15		24		23		15		26		18		31		21		205	20.5
9	Let's Fly	14		17		17		22		20		19		20		16		31		18		194	19.4
10	FlyStones	13		10		13		17		17		16		16		17		23		16		158	15.8

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Bubbles - Airborne VDV - IFS-Moscow at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2021

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Russia has now become one of the growing number of countries, where 4-way Women teams are the best 4-way Open Class teams at the same time. The situation has been the same in France for several years, even though the French 4-way Open Class team finished with a higher meet average in Tanay.

British 4-way Women team NFTO have won the AAA Class competition at the national championships since 2018, and HF Cubs are the strongest 4-way indoor team in the Czech Republic.

The 1st DITC and the Russian Indoor Nationals connected the two 4-way Women teams indirectly through the scores that Airborne VDV posted at both events. The new VDV lineup with Kirill Bukharov and Artur Kindzer could keep up with young Czech 4-way ladies in Dubai and lost by only two points after the ten indoor rounds.

Neither VDV nor IFS-Moscow were able to stop Bubbles at the Russian Indoor Nationals earlier, and VDV ended up 15 points behind in November with the same lineup that competed in Dubai in December. The competition draw in St. Petersburg was obviously faster compared to Dubai, where VDV posted a significantly lower meet average (28.1 - 26.4) after the same number of rounds. Therefore, HF Cubs might not be as far behind Bubbles as the raw numbers are showing at this point in time. However, the outdoor world champions in 4-way Women are surely getting ready to add the indoor world cup title to their collection.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		Total	Avg
1	Bubbles	RU	21	-1	33	-3	18	-1	33	-3	27		18	-2	150	25.0
2	Aerodyne Maubeuge	FR	24		27	-4	18		34		24	-2	21		148	24.7
3	No Mercy	PL	15		20	-1	11	-1	20	-2	16		11		93	15.5
4	Aviatrixx	US	15		25		13		14		0		12	-1	79	13.2

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Russia - France in 4-way Women at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020

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