posted Jun 15th, 2004 - Last not least it is time to introduce the Russian teams that will compete at the IPC Anton Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004 on their home turf. Ten Russian 4-way teams had signed up before the registration deadline of June 1st. The rules of the International Parachuting Commission (IPC) allow only a total of four teams to represent the same nation at the IPC World Cups. The Sky Panthers, Extreme.RU, Kolomna Quick Blue and Synairgy will officially compete for IPC medals in Stupino, while six other Russian teams are registered as guest teams.

Last year's Russian national 4-way team Wild Wind will not be in the race for cash and medals at the Malevsky Memorial World Cup any longer. The team discontinued after the Mondial 2003. Three of the 2003 Wild Wind members (Nikolay, Sergey, videographer Maxim) joined forces with the veteran competitors Vladimir Akopov (captain) and Alex Tychinsky (player coach) to form a new line-up with team Extreme.RU. Akopov and Tychinsky finished at last year's event with a 16.8 meet average for Extreme.RU. Team captain Akopov says: "Every team member is highly motivated. Even though the team has made only 300 jumps, the season's goal is to exceed 200 points. We consider the Malevsky Cup as the dress rehearsal before the Russian National Championship in August".

Wild Wind's female 2003 member Elena Tchistova has joined the Russian national 8-way team for the 2004 season. The NSL News posted an update in January 2004 when the Russian 8-way team visited at Skydive DeLand for a winter training camp. The Malevsky Memorial World Cup 2004 does not include an 8-way competition. However, the 8-way team will still be on site and split up in two 4-way teams for the competition in Stupino. Evolution Pro and Evolution Junior will both be guest teams in the 4-way event.

Russia's 2004 national team for the IPC Malevsky Memorial World Cup and the included Open European Championship is team Sky Panthers. The experienced team finished in 10th place at the World Cup in 2002 with a 17.3 average. One year later, the Sky Panthers already posted a 20.0 meet average at the Malevsky Cup 2003 and finished only one point behind Sinapsi PD in the race for the bronze medal. The Sky Panthers are very commited and could easily be a serious contender for one of the six top positions this year.

The next official Russian contender in Stupino is team Synairgy, which was founded in 2002. Team captain Anton Kovalev explains the team goals for this year: "Our goal is to reach the highest results possible, while still training and competing as an all-amateur team with no player coaches, which is unusual for Russia. We love the beauty of this sport and we want to proove that it is achievable for everyone and not only for the top-notch professionals". Synairgy has a new line up after posting a 12.0 meet average at the Russian Nationals last year.Kolomna Quick Blue is a young and very promising Russian team, which has already posted a 17.4 meet average at the Russian Nationals 2003 and a 16.4 average at the Malevsky Cup 2003. Kolomna Quick Blue had personnel changes this year, and the Russian 4-way experts are waiting to see the performance level of the new line-up at this year's Malevsky Cup.

Even though this event does not include an official category for the Women's 4-way event, the host will reward the best all-female teams with an extra set of medals. Russia will be represented by the Ladybirds. The Ladybirds were formed last year by Larisa Sverdlenko who competed with Spirit of Russia, the Russian female national team of 2000 and 2001. Spirit of Russia won the bronze medal at the IPC World Cup 2000 at Skydive Arizona in Eloy with a 10.6 meet average. Sverdlenko was also a member of the Russian Women's national team at the IPC World Meet and World Air Games 2001 in Spain. Russia finished in fifth place with an 11.5 meet average. Former Wild Wind and current 8-way member Elena Tchistova was competing together with Sverdlenko in the same team by then.

The Ladybirds competed at the Malevsky Cup 2003 and finished with a 10.6 average. However, Russia did not register a female team for the Mondial 2003. The Ladybirds changed the line-up for the 2004 season and will jump at the Malevsky Cup 2004 as a guest team. The team still hopes to compete for the extra set of medals and will go up against the defending world champion from the United Kingdom, V-Max, Kewara from Italy and Chicas from Germany.