posted Sep 28th, 2014 - The Russian Nationals 2014 were completed last week in Tanay, Siberia, and produced a new 4-way champion. Black Cat won with a 21.6 average, and Russia's national 4-way team Barkli did not try to defend the title.

Only former Barkli member Sergey Shenin competed in 4-way and won the silver medals with Fly Station. Actually, the Barkli lineup had already changed significantly before the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014, where Vladimir Pavlenko, Nikolay Vylegzhanin, Alexey Minaev and Dmitriy Samokhval competed for Russia.

Barkli still won the 8-way competition in Tanay, even though the lineup was different than at the world meet, as well.

New 4-way champion Black Cat had Vasiliy Korotkov, Valentin Ilyin, Evgeny Stajenko and Aleksandr Kvochur in the lineup, with Valery Gredasov on the bench and Vadim Niyazov on camera.

Russian Nationals 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	L,4,P,11	13,J,A,F	12,21,D	H,19,18	7,B,15	10,E,9	2,17,C	14,5,20	Q,K,G,8	1,N,3	Total	Avg
1	Black Cat	23	28	18	22	23	24	18	15	24	21	216	21.6
2	Fly Station	20	21	16	20	23	23	21	16	24	17	201	20.1
3	Sunny Wind	17	22	14	16	21	18	18	16	20	15	177	17.7
4	2XL	15	20	12	15	18	18	16	11	17	14	156	15.6
5	XOteam	15	13	14	14	17	16	17	12	19	16	153	15.3
6	a.team4way	14	17	13	14	18	16	13	13	16	14	148	14.8
7	Akkopa	11	16	13	12	16	16	13	11	18	15	141	14.1
8	Infra Red Band	12	17	12	11	12	14	13	9	17	12	129	12.9
9	Sytye Volki	13	13	10	10	13	12	12	7	13	11	114	11.4
10	Propaganda Zagona	11	10	10	12	14	13	12	7	11	10	110	11.0
11	Sovet Direktorov	10	11	10	9	10	11	10	7	11	7	96	9.6

It was in August 2009 when Black Cat won the Russian Nationals the last time, after a 10-round battle with Barkli.

They were also still the stronger Russian team (21.2 - 21.0) a month later at the World Cup. Black Cat was formed when the Sky Panthers of 2004 (Michail Kuznetzov, Vasiliy Korotkov, Alexei Minaev, Evgeny Stajenko, Vadim Niyzov on camera) broke up and split into two new teams, Barkli and Black Cat.

Black Cat (Vasiliy Korotkov, Alexandr Kvochur, Alexei Minaev, Evgeniyy Stashchenko, Vadim Niyzov on camera) was the stronger team in the beginnings of both new teams and even won bronze medals at the World Cup 2005.

Michail Kuznetzov and Leonid Kazinets had hired three other former Russian 8-way world champions (Vladimir Pavlenko, Oleg Shalomikhin, Sergey Shenin) and worked on catching up.

Barkli was ready in 2006 and won the qualification (24.1 - 23.4) for the world meet in Germany over Black Cat and placed 4th for Russia a few months later.

Barkli's 4-way lineup continued to maintain the top spot in the following years and competed for Russia at the world meets in Maubeuge 2008, Menzelinsk 2010 and Dubai 2012.

Barkli's 4-way lineup continued to maintain the top spot in the following years and competed for Russia at the world meets in Maubeuge 2008, Menzelinsk 2010 and Dubai 2012.

Black Cat then had the comeback in August 2009 before Barkli took back the top position a year later. Last week, and five years later, Black Cat was finally back in 1st place of the 4-way leaderboard.

Three members of the original 2005 lineup (Vasiliy Korotkov, Evgeny Stajenko, Aleksandr Kvochur) and videographer Vadim Niyazov took back the top spot in Russia.

Valentin Ilyin, who had trained and competed with Sunny Wind this year, and team sponsor and competitor Valery Gredasov, joined Black Cat earlier this year and eventually won their first 4-way title.

Aleksey Minaev and Aleksandr Golovkin replaced them in the Sunny Wind lineup and won the bronze medals. Fly Station placed 2nd with Sergey Yalpaev, Vladimir Arutyunov, Yury Drozdov, Sergey Shenin and Daniil Boroveev in the lineup, Andrey Tretyakov on camera.