posted Aug 13th, 2006 - The NSL News did not have much time to follow up after the World Meet 2006 was concluded last Thursday in Germany. There was an emotional award ceremony at the competition site before the participants headed back to the hotels for the official closing party.

The 4th IPC Anton Malevsky Memorial International Cup 2006 was next on the agenda for the NSL News, and every minute was precious to move the mobile NSL News office from Germany to Russia and prepare for the next competition.

Everything has been on schedule so far, and nothing seems to be in the way for a similar event coverage as it was provided for the world meet audience. The NSL-TV cooperation with RealXstream.com worked out very well, and the Malevsky Cup 2006 will put the new system to the next test.

It will be worthwhile for the NSL-TV audience to be connected for the upcoming week once again. The competition in Stupino will be on world class level as it was in Germany. In fact, the French 4-way team, France Gap Nice Icarius Autrement, is already on site and will try to turn the surprising silver medals from Germany into cash in Russia.

This will not be easy for Paul "Polo" Grisoni, Julien Losantos, Davide Moy and Erwan Pouliquen, with Nicolas Ruellou on camera. The Russian team Black Cat will offer as much competition for France in Stupino as the Sky Panthers Barkli did in Germany. Black Cat will be eager to show that it is the best Russian team, and Extreme.RU has probably a similar goal.

Then there is the US team Fastrax, which wants to win the first high-profile competition and earn national and internationsl respect and recognition for the hard training. Fastrax is ready to go after the best teams in the world.

The international eyes will also be on the performance of the US team Synchronicity with its all-female line-up. The 2004 world champion and best US team in the female category last year was just succeeded by the British team Perris Airkix. The British team upset the French team and took the gold medals in Germany.

The international audience in Germany was curious whether Synchronicity would have been able to keep up with Airkix and the French team or not. A similar question is behind the German team Chicas, which is considered to be the better German team in the female category. Focus Remscheid represented the host country better then expected with a 5th place and a 13.2 average. It will not be easy for Chicas to make a strong statement. The Chicas members were interested observers in Gera last week.

The competition draw in Russia is scheduled for today at noon, the first round of 4-way competition is scheduled for 2:00 pm.