posted Mar 19th, 2015 - The Sun Path Products NSL News had featured the history of the Russian 4-way team Black Cat with the story on 28 September. Black Cat had won the Russian 4-way gold medals at the national championships last year.

Black Cat competed again at the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship and then came to DeLand for the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2015 as the reigning Russian 4-way champions.

Three of the original Black Cat members (Vasiliy Korotkov, Evgeny Stajenko, Vadim Niyzov on camera) are still in the lineup, and Alexey Minaev is the alternate. The current lineup still has to defend the 4-way title at this year's national championships to qualify as the Russian national 4-way team for the World Meet 2016 in the USA.

Paraclete XP Outdoor 2015		Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class	N,2,13	16,O,E,10	D,19,11	C,8,M,9	F,20,P,6	A,7,B,G	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed (US)	22	25	23	32	28	37	167	27.8
2	SDC Rhythm XP (US)	19	23	20	28	25	32	147	24.5
3	Golden Knights (US)	19	22	18	25	24	32	140	23.3
4	Carolina Turbo XP (US)	19	16	19	26	23	29	132	22.0
5	Black Cat (RU)	16	19	18	25	22	31	131	21.8
6	Teiwaz (US)	14	16	15	16	18	22	101	16.8
7	Dubai Asaar Ladies (AE)	11	13	14	18	16	20	92	15.3
8	Dubai Asaar Gold (AE)	12	15	12	13	15	19	86	14.3

5th DIPC 2014		Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Rd. 4	Rd. 5	Rd. 6	Rd. 7	Rd. 8	Rd. 9	Rd. 10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open	Q,5,6	F,22,18	19,8,21	4,16,K	14,A,H,17	B,12,E,3	O,J,15,L	C,20,N,G	M,9,P,7	11,1,10	Total	Avg
1	Venturi (FR)	17	20	13	24	14	19	20	16	17	19	179	17.9
2	Russia (RU)	16	19	12	24	14	17	18	17	17	16	170	17.0
3	Dubai Asaar 8 (AE)	16	18	12	23	15	18	21	16	12	17	168	16.8
4	Monaco Vitalsea 8 (MC)	12	17	11	20	14	16	16	14	13	17	150	15.0
5	Qatar Falcons 8 (QA)	13	14	9	16	11	13	13	11	12	12	124	12.4
6	Germany 8 (DE)	10	6	7	13	8	10	11	10	11	11	97	9.7

It was a promising start into the important 2015 season. The 21.8 average is a new record number for the current Black Cat lineup. Former 8-way world champions Vasiliy Korotkov, Evgeny Stajenko and Alexey Minaev have posted even higher 4-way numbers between 2006 and 2008, and they are now on the way to take back and maintain the top position in Russia.

Team mate Valentin Ilin is one of the most experienced 4-way and 8-way competitors in Russia and joined the Black Cat lineup after his time with Sunny Wind. Team sponsor Valery Gredasov has put together a very powerful combination that puts himself in the pressure position. He has been handling it very well.

However, there will be even more pressure at this year's national championships when all Russian top competitors will try to win the qualification for the Mondial 2016.

All Black Cat members except Valery Gredasov are also competing in 8-way, including 4-way alternate Alexey Minaev and videographer Vadim Niyazov. Two more former 8-way world champions, Oleg Shalamykhin and Nikolay Sukharnikov, provide a very powerful 8-way foundation. Ruslan Azarov and Andrey Rashev complete the lineup. Andrey Barabash is the 9th member and sponsors the 8-way team.

Oleg Shalamykhin said that the team has a plan until the World Meet 2016. 8-way training is scheduled for five days every month. Black Cat will have a separate schedule for the 4-way training.

The 8-way lineup is almost identical with the one that competed at the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship. For the only change, Nikolai Sukharnikov replaces Alexander Kvochur. Russia started with a 17.0 average in Dubai. The 8-way team will soon visit DeLand for the first outdoor training camp in April.