posted Feb 13th, 2018 - The NSL News visited a winter training camp of the Qatar Falcons 8-way team at Skydive City, as the story on 8 December 2017 reported. It included a live NSL Talk with coach Gary Smith.

The team is back in Florida for the next training camp, and it was a new opportunity to get an update from Gary Smith, who is also coaching the reigning Belgian indoor and outdoor 4-way world champions, NMP PCH HayaBusa. Gary Smith was not in Spain for the Wind Games 2018, as he was busy with the Qatar Falcons in Z-Hills. He followed the Wind Games action live online and with the aftermath of the NSL News.

NMP PCH HayaBusa did well without the coach, who was happy with the performance in Empuriabrava. In fact, he was quite impressed how the Belgians are now managing their meets over the duration of ten rounds. They have worked together on a strategy that allows HayaBusa to trust the strength of the team, which are the faster sequences, and wait patiently for a scoring opportunity.

The HayaBusa psychology is in very good shape after a long time on the top of the 4-way world, and the team does not worry too much if they don't win a round, or if another team even outscores the world champions, as Arizona Airspeed did in Round 6. Gary Smith said that a 10-round meet will naturally bring at least one opportunity with a faster sequence, where HayaBusa can make up for lost rounds or pull ahead.

Gary Smith had to leave NFTO alone at the Wind Games, as well, and Roy Janssen helped out this time. He said that Andy Grauwels and Dennis Praet have also been working with the British national team in 4-way Women when he was not available.

He pointed out that the hard working team finished with a new record average at the Wind Games, and he is expecting more to come soon.

NFTO will not be able to catch up with the French Weembi Girls this year; however, the team is on course for turning the bronze medals at the FAI Mondial 2016 into silver this year in Australia.

He said that he will be carefully watching the 4-way action at the Shamrock Showdown 2018, where Realfly Sion and Arizona Airspeed will try to push each other closer to the Belgian outdoor level.

He is expecting the French national team in 4-way Open to be stronger at the outdoor competition, compared to the Wind Games performance, which was still impressive enough with a new 30.4 team record average.

Realfly Sion did neither compete at the FAI Indoor World Meet 2017 nor at the Flight Fighters where the Weembi High Rollers represented France, while Realfly Sion trained for outdoor competition.

Wind Games 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		K,5,4	12,8,M	19,2,17	P,C,F,16	D,B,9,N	22,21,13	3,14,11	G,L,E,Q,10	6,20,H	A,O,18,1	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	31	26	27	46	54	23	24	38	31	32	332	33.2
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	29	26	27	41	51	24	24	35	31	28	316	31.6
3	Realfly Sion	FR	29	24	27	42	45	22	23	35	29	28	304	30.4
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	27	25	25	42	41	19	20	30	28	27	284	28.4
5	French Weembi Girls	FR	27	23	25	39	47	19	20	30	27	25	282	28.2
6	IFS-Moscow	RU	25	22	23	39	44	21	23	30	28	24	279	27.9
7	Gavroche Weembi	FR	25	21	24	40	42	17	20	31	27	27	274	27.4
8	Echochamber	SE	28	22	23	40	41	17	21	26	27	22	267	26.7
9	Amnesya	IT	24	22	20	40	40	17	20	29	28	26	266	26.6
10	Airheads	CH	26	22	24	37	47	17	19	26	22	22	262	26.2
11	XL	UK	23	20	22	35	37	17	20	28	25	24	251	25.1
12	NFTO	UK	20	20	21	34	40	17	16	25	22	22	237	23.7

In 8-way, Gary Smith is expecting a battle for the gold medals between Golden Knights and Tanay already this year. He thinks that Craig Girard will guide the Russian 8-way team carefully through a very intense training schedule before the world championship and have the team ready for challenging the reigning 8-way world champions.

He thinks that the Russian 8-way team could even establish itself in the top spot for a longer time period, as there is enough potential in Russia to fill potentially open slots in the near future. The 8-way time period between Australia 2018 and Tanay 2020 could become just as successful for Russia as it was in 2001 - 2003.

Gary Smith will finish the outdoor training camp with the Qatar Falcons this week and then travel to North Carolina for the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2018, where they will meet the Golden Knights in 8-way action. The Qatar Falcons have a 21.6 average in the Paraclete records from 2016, which will surely be increased significantly this time.

Then the Qatar team will travel to Weembi Lille and compete at the French Indoor Nationals 2018 for more 8-way meet experience and to see what France has to offer in 8-way this year...

Paraclete XP Indoor 2016			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		19,7,18	H,8,P,M	22,1,J	4,Q,12	E,5,2	11,L,3	21,N,17	A,15,G,O	10,13,K	9,6,16	Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	25	27	34	36	24	36	27	36	26	31	302	30.2
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	17	18	23	26	19	24	20	26	19	24	216	21.6
3	Team White	FR	18	20	25	29	17	23	18	25	18	22	215	21.5
4	VIVA	CH	15	17	21	22	15	18	16	20	15	19	178	17.8
5	Rhythm	US	15	16	19	20	17	16	16	23	14	19	175	17.5
6	Team Yellow	FR	12	15	16	22	12	15	18	19	16	18	163	16.3
6	Spaceland Lite	US	12	16	18	23	14	19	14	18	11	18	163	16.3
8	14-O	US	13	13	16	17	13	16	15	18	17	17	155	15.5
9	DV8	US	13	14	17	18	13	17	13	18	13	15	151	15.1
10	Heros	US	11	16	15	19	13	18	10	15	13	15	145	14.5