posted Mar 19th, 2022 - Two of the seven Russian 4-way teams who were registered for the FAI Indoor World Cup 2022 still attended the Small Party's Indoor Cup, even though they will not be able to compete at the upcoming indoor competition in Charleroi.

The NSL News had introduced the Russian 4-way delegation on February 2nd. Most of the teams were planning to get their last competition practice at last weekend's indoor meet before traveling to Belgium at the beginning of April.

The update on March 8th included an official FAI/ISC statement that the FAI Executive Board unanimously decided to "suspend the members of Russia and Belarus with immediate effect and therefore removing all rights as listed in FAI Statutes 2.4.2.1". The Russian 4-way teams and all other potential Russian participants were thus excluded from competing at the indoor world cup.

Two of the seven banned 4-way teams still competed at the indoor event in Moscow (IFS Moscow, Airborne VDV). The currently strongest Russian 4-way team and reigning FAI outdoor world champion in 4-way Women, Bubbles, did not attend the meet, and the two 4-way junior teams skipped it, as well.

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Russian Indoor Nationals 2021		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open/4-way Women	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
Rank	4-way Junior	M,C,A,6		M,H,Q,15		M,B,F,14		M,N,D,2		M,J,L,21		M,K,O,9		M,G,E,4		M,P,O,7		-		-		Total	Avg
1	Airborne Forces Juniors	20	-4	25		22	-3	23		22	-2	30		22	-2	30		-		-		194	24.3
2	Airborne Yunarmiya	23	-3	21	-4	22	-5	20	-4	23	-4	28	-5	18	-6	27	-2	-		-		182	22.8

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Even without Bubbles as the top contender, there was still competition for the strongest Russian 4-way Open Class team, IFS Moscow. Russian Thunder, with team leader Sergey Shenin, one of Russia's most experienced 4-way and 8-way competitors, was back a year after the previous indoor cup.

Sergey Shenin had a very different lineup last weekend. Only original member Elena Baranova was back in her slot, and two other highly experienced 4-way and 8-way competitors joined Sergey Shenin for the ten indoor rounds.

In fact, Vladimir Pavlenko has been Sergey Shenin's 4-way team mate since 2005, and they won FAI bronze medals together with Sky Panthers in Menzelinsk 2010. They were already 8-way world champions of 2003 together before turning to 4-way competition.

New Thunder member Dmitry Samokhval was the 8-way alternate in 2003. He and Vladimir Pavlenko were finally together in Russia's 8-way team that won silver medals in Prostejov 2014. They were still training and competing together in the Tanay 8-way team that won FAI bronze medals last year at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020.

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Russia Indoor Cup 2022		1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	10,P,20		M,8,6		16,15,J		21,18,N		17,13,H		4,5,11		3,K,D,19		Q,14,E,9		F,L,A,22		C,2,1		Total	Avg
1	IFS-Moscow	22	-1	27		27	-1	23		29	-1	22	-1	27		36	-2	33	-1	25	-1	271	27.1
2	Thunder	23	-1	23	-4	28	-1	20	-3	25	-3	23		25	-3	36		31	-4	22	-3	256	25.6
3	Airborne VDV	20	-3	23	-3	28		18	-5	26	-1	21	-1	25		32	-1	28	-2	26	-1	247	24.7
4	Quatro	13	-3	20	-2	21		18		19	-3	14	-3	21		25	-3	27		16	-3	194	19.4
5	Ex-Bambalbee	15	-1	16	-3	21		14	-4	17	-2	16		20	-1	24	-2	23	-1	19		185	18.5
6	Down and Feathers	14	-2	19	-1	16		14	-2	16	-1	12	-2	14	-2	24		22		15	-1	166	16.6
7	RomKa Team	15		16	-1	16	-1	15	-1	12	-3	8	-5	17		15	-5	19		13	-1	146	14.6
8	FlyStones	11		17		14		13		12	-1	11	-1	15		19		19		14		145	14.5

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The Small Party's Indoor Cup last weekend might have been the first time that Vladimir Pavlenko, Sergey Shenin and Dmitry Samokhval competed together in 4-way, while there were still more cross connections between the three former 8-way world champions.

Dmitry Samokhval was training and competing with IFS Moscow since the team was formed in 2017. Alexander Golovkin replaced him after the Wind Games 2020 when he had to focus only on his 8-way obligation with the Tanay team.

IFS Moscow had other changes just recently. The NSL News reported on January 11th that Yury Drozdov and Egor Gusev will swap their slots to level out both pieces in a better way. The new balance between the pieces was expected to generate even better results.

Egor Gusev has been inside center for all of his 17 years of 4-way training and competition, and he enjoyed the new slot. The new slot constellation brought the same IFS Moscow lineup straight back to the same performance and scoring level of a year ago.