posted Jan 11th, 2022 - The recent NSL News updates from Russia covered mainly more details of the tragic plane crash in Tanay right before the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020. However, the actual event coverage of the Russian Indoor Nationals 2021 was still the main topic of the story on 27 December 2021, before Airborne VDV and the plane crash received special attention.

The story of the Russian Indoor Nationals pointed out that Russia has 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. Bubbles, the new Russian outdoor world champions in 4-way Women at the world meet, had also outscored Airborne VDV and IFS-Moscow both at their national indoor championships in November.

There was even more meaning for Bubbles behind the results at the indoor competition - if this is possible after winning gold medals for Russia at the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving. Bubbles had to defeat the reigning Russian indoor champions of 2020, IFS-Moscow.

The Russian indoor team, formed first time in 2017, were in their second year with the current lineup, after former Black Cat member Alexander Golovkin joined the team. He replaced Tanay 8 member Dmitry Samokhval, who discontinued when the Russian 8-way team focused exclusively on winning 8-way gold medals at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 in August last year.

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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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The new IFS-Moscow lineup won the Russian Indoor Nationals 2020 and qualified for the next indoor world meet, which was first scheduled for April 2021 and then canceled. The event in Charleroi, Belgium, was rescheduled and turned into the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022.

IFS-Moscow will still travel to the same place this April. Bubbles won the Russian indoor title and would be the national team at an indoor world meet, unless they would decide to compete in 4-way Women, which would qualify Airborne VDV as the national 4-way Open Class team after the 2nd place at the national indoor championships.

However, the event in Charleroi has turned into a world cup, where each country's delegation can send up to four teams to compete. Russia's Formation Skydiving delegation for Charleroi will consist of four teams in 4-way Open and two teams in 4-way Women, and IFS-Moscow will have a new opportunity to finish in the top position of the six Russian teams.

IFS-Moscow also plan to take back the top spot in Russia at the national indoor championships in December this year, which will be the qualification for the next indoor world meet with only one national team.

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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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IFS-Moscow - Airborne VDV - Russian Thunder - Bubbles at the Russian Indoor Nationals 2020

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The same IFS-Moscow lineup has already started with the preparations for world cup and indoor nationals. They plan to reach the usual training volume of six to seven hours per month and will once again work together with former NMP PCH HayaBusa member Andy Grauwels as their coach.

IFS-Moscow is also looking for a coach in Russia to work with when Andy Grauwels is not available. The new plans include different slots for two team members, which seems to make more sense. Yury Drozdov and Egor Gusev will swap their slots to level out both pieces in a better way. The previous front piece (Alexander Golovkin, Yury Drozdov) was on the lighter side, compared to the heavier rear piece (Egor Gusev, Dmitry Komkov).

The new balance between the pieces is expected to generate even better results.

IFS-Moscow are looking forward to this year's training and competition agenda and are ready to leave behind the most recent disappointing results. The indoor competition site in St. Petersburg has not been a great place for the team. It's where IFS-Moscow lost the selection for the indoor world meet of 2017, the selection for the indoor world cup a year later, and then again for the world meet at Weembi in 2019. There were no FAI indoor world meets or world cups in 2020 and 2021, and IFS-Moscow hope to travel to Belgium in April and then win the next qualification in Russia in December.