posted Mar 4th, 2004 - The delegates of the International Parachuting Commission (IPC) upgraded the Malevsky Memorial Cup to one of the IPC's "1st Category Events" at the 55th annual IPC meeting in Lisbon at the end of January. The official name of the first-class competition in Stupino, Russia, is now "2004 Open European Championship and IPC Anton Malevsky Memorial World Cup".

The event is scheduled for June 29 to July 3, 2004. It will be the third year for the Malevsky Cup. DeLand Majik won both competitions in 2002 and 2003 and will try to defend the title this year once again.

The Malevsky Cup experienced a tragic setback when founder and former meet director Andrei Efimov was killed in a traffic accident on December 11, 2003. It was Efimov's dream to make the Malevsky Memorial Cup one of the world's best skydiving competitions.

A group of people, led by the new meet director Igor Yurash and Russian IPC delegate Anatoly Zhirov, stepped in and continued with Efimov's work. One of the members, Fyodor Mozgovoi, former team videographer for the Russian female team, Ladybirds, and also for the Russian skysurfing team at the Mondial 2003 confirmed: "We are committed to work hard to continue his work and make his dream come true."

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The history of the Malevsky Memorial Cup already has its own dramatic background. The event name honors Anton Malevsky who was a prominent Russian businessman. He began skydiving in the fall of 2000, though he had made his first parachute jump during his military service as a paratrooper in Afghanistan.

He was a passionate skydiver himself and also promoted the development of the sport in every way possible. His sponsorship allowed the Russian 8-way team to win the first gold medal in the history of Russian Formation Skydiving in 2001.

Malevsky died in a skydiving accident on November 6, 2001. The Russian skydiving community remembers him as a very cheerful, kind and generous person, and the Malevsky Memorial Cup was created in 2002.

When former meet director Andrei Efimov died in the traffic accident last year, the Malevsky Memorial Cup management still presented a bid to the IPC to upgrade the competition as a First Category Event in 2003, which was then approved by the IPC in Lisbon. The preparations for the 2004 event are now in full swing.

The world class judging panel has already been confirmed, with Mondial 2003 event judge for Formation Skydiving, Klaus Wellens, as the Chief Judge in Russia. Susan Dixon (France), Judy Celaya (USA), Exi Rainer Hoenle (Germany), Rina Gallo (Canada), Jukka Olkkonen (Finland), Tone Bergan (Norway) complete the international panel. The new meet director, Igor Yurash, proudly announced the state of the progression:

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$40,000 of the total purse are for the first six places in the 4-way competition. The winner takes home $12,000 this year.

DeLand Majik has already won money in 2002 and the same $12,000 last year. However, Majik member Doug Park mentioned that it surely is not only the money that brings the team back to Russia:

"The trip was a great experience, and the meet is extremely well organized. Only the traffic between Moscow and Stupino is tough business."

The NSL News will follow up on the progression of this year's event preparations.