New Russian team: Sunny Wind lineup

posted Oct 25th, 2012 - The NSL News recently mentioned that several teams are making plans for the 2013 season that include the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013. Thunder is one of the confirmed teams, and a new Russian team also told the NSL News that the event is on its 2013 schedule.

Sunny Wind is a combination of two teams who have appeared on previous NSL leaderboards, and the team recently came to DeLand for a fall training camp. Team members Valentin Ilin (Center Outside) and Vladimir Ostanin (Center Inside) competed for Sunny Heaven at a small season opener in Kolomna in May.

The history of the other half of the team name goes much farther back in time.

May 5th, 2012		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	Q,E,7,D	15,3,5	16,L,1	H,21,B,2	N,14,20	4,17,8	22,9,J	6,19,G	O,M,13,A	11,P,F,C	Total	Avg
1	SportLoto (RU)	30	18	20	23	18	16	21	20	23	26	215	21.5
2	Sunny Heaven (RU)	20	13	14	17	15	12	16	12	19	18	156	15.6
3	Vertical (RU)	20	13	14	17	12	13	16	13	17	20	155	15.5

Wild Wind at the World Meet 2003

Wild Wind was formed in 2002 and competed for Russia at the World Cup in Spain and then again at the World Meet 2003 in France. Vladimir Ostanin was a Wild Wind member and is now back with Sunny Wind.

His team members of 2003 are also still active. Nikolay Vylegzhanin and Sergey Yalpaev are both training and competing for Sky Panthers Barkli in 8way. Nikolay Vylegzhanin is also in the 4way lineup. Elena Chistova is coming back with an Illusions lineup who will compete for Russia in the female 4way category at the Mondial 2012 in Dubai.

Vladimir Ostanin is one of the most experienced Russian competitors in history. He was in the 8way lineup of 1987 who won the first medals at a World Championship of Formation Skydiving for Russia with a 3rd place in Brazil. Then he won 8way silver medals two years later in Spain. He added three more sets of 8way bronze medals in 1991, 1993 and 1995 and another silver medal in 1997.

World Meet 2003		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	1-11-12	M-J-E-10	K-16-6	13-14-5	D-22-4	9-C-Q-N	F-19-21	2-20-L	18-B-3	8-P-7	Total	Avg
1	France Maubeuge	16	26	23	19	21	37	24	21	19	23	229	22.9
2	USA Golden Knights	17	24	22	19	18	35	22	18	19	20	214	21.4
3	Norway DeLand Norgies	13	24	21	19	18	36	19	16	19	21	206	20.6
4	United Kingdom XL	14	22	21	19	17	34	21	18	19	20	205	20.5
5	Italy Sinapsi PD	13	24	22	17	17	32	22	18	18	-	183	20.3
6	Switzerland Endeavour	13	21	19	15	17	29	21	17	16	-	168	18.7
7	NMPV - Belgium	15	19	19	16	15	29	19	16	16	-	164	18.2
8	Germany EADS	14	19	17	15	15	26	17	16	16	-	155	17.2
9	Russia Wild Wind	15	22	18	15	18	22	17	8	-	-	135	16.9
10	Sweden Phenix	13	18	15	15	16	23	18	16	-	-	134	16.8

	Gradient Alpha at the 2nd Dubai Cup

He took a longer break from international competition and then came back with Wild Wind in 4way at the World Cup 2002 in Spain. Now he has resumed training and competition once again and is the Center Inside for the new lineup of Sunny Wind.

His partner in the center is another very experienced Russian competitor. Valentin Ilin has trained and competed with Crossroads and Gradient Alpha in the past. Gradient Alpha, with three current Sky Panthers Barkli members (Vladimir Arutyunov, Alexander Tychinsky, Sergey Yalpaev) and Valentin Ilin, had finished with a 22.7 average in 3rd place at the Russian Nationals 2011. The same lineup had also posted exactly the same average at the Russian Nationals 2010.

Between 2007 and 2009, Valentin Ilin was a player coach for Dmitry Fridman's team Crossroads, together with Sky Panthers Barkli members Nikolay Vylegdzanin and Alexander Tychinskiy.

Crossroads at the Shamrock Showdown 2009

Valery Gredasov (Point) and Alexey Nevorotov (Tail) are the other two Sunny Wind members. Alexey Nevorotov is getting into serious 4way competition with only 700 jumps. He is the co-owner of Skydive Tanay in Sibiria, host of the Russian Nationals 2012, and he has big plans for his new team. Bigway expert Valery Gredasov, who was in the recent Russian 201way record jump, partners with Alexey Nevorotov to support the Sunny Wind plans.

Vadim Niyazov, former Black Cat videographer, who has put together great shows for the Russian TV stations, is filming the new team.

Sunny Wind is planning for approx. 500 training jumps next year, plus approx. 30 hours of windtunnel training. The first team scores will be posted at the Paraclete XP Outdoor Championship 2013, and the trip to Bedford for the World Challenge 2013 will follow right after the spring visit in DeLand. The Russian Nationals 2013 is the main goal for the 2013 season.

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