posted Sep 14th, 2011 - The nine teams at the Russian Nationals 2011 are still waiting for better weather, no scores have arrived at the NSL News office yet. However, the competition draw has been posted, and it includes a very interesting Round 3. The sequence of only random formations (H,Q,P,J,E) stands a pretty good chance to improve the world record for a single round, which is a 56-pointer at the moment.

Russian competition sites seem to have better chances for a super fast sequence. The Malevsky Cup 2006 in Stupino produced a world record (44 for H,O,B,Q,E) and the 56-pointer (J,M,Q,P,L) at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2010 in Menzelinsk is currently the highest outdoor number.

A former Russian 8way competitor is responsible for the sequence. Evolution Pro member of 2004 - 2006, Sergey Romanyuk, pulled the numbers and letters out of the hat at a live competition draw yesterday in Kolomna. The four Russian top teams will be on a new hunt for a new world record.

How are the chances for success? The currently best three teams in the world, Aerodyne Aerokart, NMP-PCH Hayabusa and Arizona Airspeed are not in Russia this week. The French national 4way team still owns the current world record after getting a 56-point score for a round that actually accounted for 57 points within working time.

Do the four Russian top 4way teams have the potential to score higher? The Sky Panthers share the 56-pointer world record honors with the French team, at least three of them (Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalamykhin and Sergey Shenin). Michail Kuznetsov was the 4th member when the Sky Panthers scored the 56-pointer and won the bronze medals last year.

Sky Panthers Barkli with Leonid Kazinets and then Nikolay Vylegzhanin in the last two rounds placed only 4th at the World Cup 2011, and Gradient Alpha finished in 5th place. The Sky Panthers have Nikolay Vylegzhanin in the lineup from the beginning this time.

It is not always the best or the winning team that scores a new world record. In fact, France last year has been the only 4way world champion also with the world record in the books since Arizona Airspeed posted the 39-pointer at the USPA Nationals 1999. From then on, Russian teams have played a major role in the hunt for 4way world records.

Two Russian teams (Black Cat and Extreme.RU) posted 44-pointers (H,O,B,Q,E) at the Malevsky Cup 2006 and improved Airspeed's number. Extreme.RU finished in 4th place at this competition and is one of the examples where an underdog can score a world record. Two Extreme.RU world record holders of 2006 (Alexander Tychinsky, Sergey Yalpaev) now have a new opportunity with Gradient Alpha. It was also not 4way world champion of 2008, Arizona Airspeed, posting the next world record at the USPA Nationals 2009. Spaceland Force XP posted the 45-pointer (A,N,H,P,O) and finished in 2nd place.

Three Black Cat members of 2006 will also have the chance to take back the highest number for a single round, as Vasily Korotkov, Alexander Kvochur and Evegeny Stashenko scored the 44-pointer in 2006 and are in this week's lineup, as well. Aleksander Golovkin was the alternate in 2006, while Alexey Minaev posted the world record. They have switched slots now. Vadim Niyazov was filming the 44-pointer in 2006 and is still on camera for Black Cat.

The three Sky Panthers are the most experienced experts for fast sequences. They had outscored Black Cat and Extreme.RU easily at the Russian Nationals 2006 with a 42-pointer (H,O,G,9) and then missed the Malevsky Cup and the world record sequence. Then they posted the world's highest number of the 2008 season at the national championships with a 39-pointer (A,G,9,E) before eventually sharing the official world record with France since August 2010. The pressure is now on Nikolay Vylegzhanin...

Can SportLoto, the new Russian team and 4th top contender this week, keep up and threaten the standing world record, as well? The new lineup did not do too well in Round 3 (H,M,Q,K,A) of the World Challenge 2011 and ended up far behind the world's four best indoor teams, including XL. However, that was at the beginning of the first season for SportLoto, and things looked different only a month later at the season opener in Russia where the new team won after a jump-off with Gradient Alpha. There was no fast sequence in that draw.

All four teams seem to have some obstacles in the way to a new world record in Round 3, and the 56-pointer is a very high number. However, only one of the four teams needs to have a flawless round. First of all, the weather needs to improve in Russia before any numbers can be posted.