posted May 16th, 2011 - The NSL News introduced the new Russian lineup in the female 4-way category, Illusions, briefly with the story on 30 April 2011. An earlier story had covered the team's performance at the Dubai Championship 2011 where the lineup with Elena "Lenka" Mazaeva missed a new Russian record average for the female category only due to some trouble in Round 5.

Former Kaktus Hunter Katya Kharitonova took the Point slot when Illusions decided to continue after Dubai. The new lineup then attended Russia's 2011 season opener in Kolomna at the end of April and completed what the Illusions just missed in January. The 17.7 average is the highest meet average in the history of Russian female 4-way competition.

The record average was 17.2 before, which was posted by the Ladybirds (Elena Mazaeva, Anna Panasyuk, Larisa Sverdlenko, Ekaterina Voronina, with Fyodor Mozgovoy on camera) at the Russian Nationals 2006. Joggy Bussy, a pickup team for the Russian Nationals 2008 with highly skilled and experienced 4-way competitors (Alena Chistova, Katya Kharitonona, Vitalia Kupriyanenko, Anna Panasyuk) also came close with a 17.1 average at the Russian Nationals 2008.

The new Illusions lineup has now made a 2-year plan and aims at the World Meet 2012. Former Airspeed member Andy Delk, who worked with Kaktus Hunter in the past years, is the team's coach. He spent ten days of very intensive training with Illusions in Kolomna, and they completed 70 training jumps together.

There is no doubt that this Russian team will be very competitive in the female 4-way category and challenge the world's top contenders from the USA, France and the United Kingdom. This year, Illusions will take on the best female lineups at the World Cup 2011, then qualify as the Russian female team at the national championships and attend the 3rd Dubai Cup in November.

Russia won the first medal in the female 4-way category at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving when the Ladybirds (Elena Mazaeva, Larisa Sverdlenko, Ekaterina Voronina, Olga Bogdanova) took the bronze medals at the World Meet 2004 in Croatia with a 15.3 average.

World Meet 2004		Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Round7	Round8	Round9	Round10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Women	B-P-C-18	9-15-16	K-11-19	E-F-7-5	A-J-21-12	6-4-10	17-Q-L-1	H-14-3	13-22-O	N-M-D-2	Total	Avg
1	USA Synchronicity	20	16	15	23	17	13	17	15	14	19	169	16.9
2	France	19	16	15	22	17	13	17	14	14	17	164	16.4
3	Russia Ladybirds	17	15	13	20	15	12	17	13	13	18	153	15.3
4	Italy Kewara	17	15	12	21	13	13	15	13	15	17	151	15.1
5	Belgium Diva	16	9	12	17	13	11	14	13	10	10	125	12.5
6	Germany Chicas	14	10	10	15	12	11	14	10	10	10	116	11.6
7	United Kingdom	14	10	7	14	11	10	11	11	9	-	97	10.8
8	South Africa	12	6	5	5	9	6	12	10	6	-	71	7.9
9	Spain	6	7	5	10	7	3	8	7	3	-	56	6.2
10	Ukraine Alfa Fox	6	3	2	9	6	4	7	6	6	-	49	5.4

The Ladybirds of 2005, with Kaktus Hunter Anna Panasyuk for Olga Bordanova, defended the bronze medals successfully with a 15.4 average at the World Cup 2005 in Eloy and then once again a year later at the World Meet 2006 in Germany, after breaking the tie with the US team in 3rd place to the Ladybirds' advantage.

The competition for any new Russian medals in Dubai 2012 will be extremely challenging, as the top teams from the USA, France and United Kingdom are lined up, and new underdogs, such as the German team ISB Air, have similar plans and ambitions.

However, the Illusions have a very strong team, as the first scores have shown, and some team members know each other quite well. The very promising combination of talent and experience has Alena Chistova in a natural leadership position. She has been a Russian top competitor in 4-way and 8-way for many years and has won 8-way bronze medals even in the Open Class at world meets.

Alena Chistova was also on the very first Russian female lineup that attended an international meet in this category at the World Cup 2000 in Eloy. Spirit of Russia (Alena Chistova, Larisa Sverdlenko, Evguenia Mironova, Olga Bogdanova) finished in 3rd place with a 10.6 average. She continued with the same female lineup until the 5th place and an 11.5 average at the World Meet 2001 in Spain. Then she switched to the Open Class in 4-way and 8-way.

Alena Chistova and Illusions Center Inside Zhanna "Jo" Kazakova joined forces for the first time when the Jet Bats began to challenge the dominating position of the Ladybirds in Russia. The original Jet Bats lineup was not strong enough to get close to the Ladybirds, and Alena Chistova joined the team in 2006.

Alena Chistova and Zhanna Kazakova eventually took the Russian prime position in the female category when the Ladybirds discontinued at the end of the 2006 season. The Jet Bats of 2007 (Alena Chistova, Zhanna Kazakova, Vitaliya Kupriyanenko, Varvara Sadovnikova) then won the silver medals for Russia at the World Cup 2007 in Stupino.

Two Jet Bats (Alena Chistova, Vitaliya Kupriyanenko) and two Kaktus Hunters (Katya Kharitonova, Anna Panasyuk) then challenged the Ladybirds' 17.2 average at the Russian Nationals 2008 and finished one point short. That's when Alena Chistova connected with Illusions member Katya Kharitonova.

It would still take two more years before the Illusions lineup materialized earlier this year. Alena Chistova and Zhanna Kazakova had another very short 2009 season together when they competed for Russia's 8-way lineup at the World Cup 2009 in Prostejov.

Zhanna Kazakova then trained and competed with Russia's national 4-way team in the female category, Prygalky, at the World Meet 2010 in Menzelinsk and finished in 6th place with a 13.4 average. Illusions member Maria Serova was Prygalky's alternate.

That was the last missing link for all four current Illusions members. Maria Serova is in the Tail slot and the youngest member. Point Katya Kharitonova said that she is very talented and fits easily into the lineup.

There is no doubt about that, as Maria Serova helped to deliver the 16.8 average in Dubai and then the 17.7 record average at the end of April. It was the highest 4-way average for two members of the Illusions. Alena Chistova scored higher with the Russian national 4-way team in the Open Class, Wild Wind, at the Russian Nationals 2003. Katya Kharitonova has scored significantly higher with Kaktus Hunter.

It may not take very long until the Illusions arrive at the Kaktus Hunter level. The mixture of talent and experience is promising, and the team knows it, as Katya Kharitonova told the NSL News: "Alena, Zhanna, Maria and myself are all very excited about this lineup and look forward to training and competing together."