posted Apr 12th, 2004 - The Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004 promises more excitement month by month and with each update the NSL News receives from Russia. After covering most of the logistics, this update will focus on the teams that have already signed up for the event. The Russian host had great news for the NSL audience. The current and defending world champion, France Maubeuge, will compete in Russia. This makes the Malevsky Cup the most serious challenge and completes the field of gold medal contenders for the 4-way Excalibur at the World Meet in Croatia in September.The 4-way situation of the top teams in 2004 is different compared to 2003. Even though France Maubeuge left everybody in the dust at the Mondial 2003, there were more teams involved in the race for the three sets of medals. Gold and Excalibur went clearly to France. The Golden Knights won silver for the USA without too much competition. However, three more nations (Norway, United Kingdom, Italy) competed hard for the bronze medal. Each of these three teams had the potential to challenge the first two places more seriously with a high-level ten-round performance.

Only two of these five top contenders of 2003 have continued with the same line-up. France Maubeuge will try to defend the sword this year, and Italy's Sinapsi PD is also back with the same personnel. The former UK national team, Sebastian XL, has discontinued and left a large gap to fill in the United Kingdom. The same counts for Norway where a completely new national team has picked up the 4-way tradition on a significantly lower scoring level compared to the former DeLand Norgies.

The USA will surely be represented once again by very serious a medal contender. In fact, the new national team, DeLand Majik, is probably the biggest threat to the French title defender in Maubeuge's competitive team history. DeLand Majik and France Mabeuge have competed once directly with each other at the World Cup 2002 in Spain. Majik won this event three points ahead of Maubeuge and two points ahead of Airspeed Vertical. However, neither Airspeed nor Majik represented the USA at the Mondial 2003 in France. The Golden Knights had won the USPA Nationals in 2002 and were already qualified for the next World Meet.

France Maubeuge, DeLand Majik and Sinapsi PD will compete for gold, silver and bronze in 2004. There does not seem to be any other team recently in the world that could join this three-way. The same three teams have signed up for the Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004 at the end of June. The race in Stupino, Russia, will have two aspects. The cash prizes of the money meet ($12,000 for gold, $9,000 for silver, $7,000 for bronze) are its own attraction and will pay back for large portions of practice and travel.

The psychological part of the meet in Russia might still be the even more interesting aspect. France Maubeuge might see the Malevsky Cup as an opportunity to get the fact out of the way that they have not beaten the DeLand team yet. However, a defeat in Russia would surely not contribute to Maubeuge's confidence level. Majik faces the risk of losing a potential psychological advantage if they end up behind the French team at the end of June. On the other hand, Majik would most likely gain even more confidence if they repeated the World Cup coup of 2002.

Sinapsi PD's situation is probably much easier. Nobody expects the Italian team to beat Maubeuge or Majik at this point. The underdog has the chance to learn more and move quietly closer to the two top challengers. The NSL News already evaluated the situation between DeLand Majik and Sinapsi PD after the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2004. The relationship between the Italian national team and France Maubeuge is probably very similar. Even if Sinapsi PD ends up only in third place in Russia, a strong showing would work to the team's advantage.

Winning or losing at the Malevsky Cup does not decide who will take Excalibur home this year. There will still be enough time for each team to make adjustments if necessary. The eleven weeks between the Malevsky World Cup and the World Meet in Croatia are enough time for all teams to do some specific home work. However, the Russian prize money will already be in somebody's pockets and can be used for more training, and another team name will be engraved on the precious Malevsky Cup. The event has been upgraded by the IPC. Winning the Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004 will also make history. The NSL News will soon follow up with more information of other participating teams in Russia.