posted Mar 24th, 2004 - The NSL News reported already earlier that the International Parachuting Commission (IPC) recently upgraded the Malevsky Memorial Cup to an "A Category" event. The official name of the 4-way and accuracy competition in Stupino, Russia, is now "IPC Anton Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004". It is the official "2004 Open European Championship in Formation Skydiving" at the same time. The FSL Shamrock Showdown 2004 was the right time to think ahead of this exciting event at the end of June. The NSL News mentioned yesterday that the currently three best teams in the world, France Maubeuge, DeLand Majik and Sinapsi PD, will all travel to Russia and compete for the medals and money.The NSL News reported already earlier that the International Parachuting Commission (IPC) recently upgraded the Malevsky Memorial Cup to an "A Category" event. The official name of the 4-way and accuracy competition in Stupino, Russia, is now "IPC Anton Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004". It is the official "2004 Open European Championship in Formation Skydiving" at the same time. The FSL Shamrock Showdown 2004 was the right time to think ahead of this exciting event at the end of June. The NSL News mentioned yesterday that the currently three best teams in the world, France Maubeuge, DeLand Majik and Sinapsi PD, will all travel to Russia and compete for the medals and money.

The history of the event has already been covered by the NSL News and is still available at the Malevsky Cup pages. This year's event seems to put even more salt in the soup. The three best teams and several other world class teams have already signed up, and the NSL News will follow up with more team news later. The Malevsky Cup management has also made sure that the administrative part of the meet will have the same quality and invited the most qualified judges, FAI officials and event managers. The list of the officials includes the most respected names in skydiving competition.

The Malevsky Cup 2004 will not only be a very serious skills test, money meet and run-up for the teams before the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in September. It also offers the opportunity to jump from the same plane that will get the teams in the air at the world meet in Croatia. The Mi-8 helicopter with a tailgate will drop the teams in Russia with an exit air speed of approx. 80 knots (148 km/h). Teams have the opportunity to train from the same aircraft right before the event (June 21 - 28) in Stupino and also throughout the remainder of the whole 2004 season. Several teams, including DeLand Majik, Sinapsi PD, EADS Germany and Kewara Italy take advantage of this training opportunity from the MI-8. The hosting drop zone in Stupino is located at the Krutyshki Airfield, 100 km south of Moscow.

Official arrival day for the participants is June 28th. The opening ceremony will take place next morning, and the competition will begin around noon on June 29. The NSL News will be set and ready to post the meet stories at that time. The competition is expected to be completed on July 1. The next day serves as the weather day and might also be used for an official visit to Moscow. The Anton Malevsky Memorial jump with a large formation is scheduled together with the closing ceremony and banquet for July 3rd. That's the time when the vodka flows...The official website of the Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004 offers additional information, which is available in Russian and English language. The NSL News will update the Skyleague.com pages on a regular basis. Check in there for updates and reviews once in a while.