posted Nov 11th, 2018 - The aftermath of the FAI World Meet 2018 in Australia has not included yet a closer look at the delegation of a quickly and well developing country in Formation Skydiving competition.

In fact, the Qatar Falcons 8-way team won the first set of FAI medals ever for their country at an FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving with the 3rd place in 8-way Open.

The NSL News has covered the road of the Qatar Falcons to the bronze medals in Australia with several updates, supported by coach Gary Smith who has been working with the team for a few years and guided the Falcons to their first international success. The bronze medals in Australia were eventually not a big surprise any longer after knowing of the impressive 8-way performance at the 2018 training camps.

Of course, the absence of a French national team in 8-way Open had also opened the door widely for another nation to take the bronze medal position in this event. However, the 17.0 team record average in Australia was still on the same scoring level that won the bronze medals at the FAI World Meet 2014 in Prostejov.

FAI World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		21,L,B,G		22,18,17		19,7,O		J,16,12		10,A,D,15		Q,M,F,C,N		H,20,P,13		6,14,11		E,2,5		4,1,3		Total	Avg
1	Golden Knights	US	24		21		18		24		19	-2	29		21		18	-1	17		33		224	22.4
2	Tanay	RU	21	-1	21		17		22	-1	20		28		16	-1	18		18		28	-1	209	20.9
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	19		16		15		18	-1	14	-1	21		16		14	-1	14		23	-1	170	17.0
4	MicroClim8	UK	17		15		12		14	-1	15		21		15		12	-2	13		18	-1	152	15.2

FAI World Meet 2018			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		21,L,B,G		22,18,17		19,7,O		J,16,12		10,A,D,15		Q,M,F,C,N		H,20,P,13		6,14,11		E,2,5		4,1,3		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32		21		27	-2	24		22	-3	62	-2	22	-2	20	-1	27	-1	22		279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	-5	21		27	-1	24		24	-1	60	-1	26		22		27		20		277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	-1	19		24	-2	23		24		52	-3	20	-3	17	-3	24		19		251	25.1
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	-2	14	-1	24	-1	21		22		53	-4	21	-1	18		20		17		234	23.4
5	Echochamber	SE	25	-1	16		21	-1	17	-2	20	-1	48	-4	14	-3	18		21	-1	15	-1	215	21.5

The Qatar Tigers in the 4-way event were not in a similar fortunate situation as the Falcons in 8-way, where one of the three Formation Skydiving powerhouses (United States - France - Russia) did not register a team. Qatar's 4-way team still finished in the highest ranking position (4th) in history, as well, with a new 23.4 outdoor team record average.

This was still not enough to make it anywhere close to the medal rankings in 4-way Open, even though Russia was not represented by Black Cat, the country's strongest 4-way team. Belgium has become a new Formation Skydiving powerhouse in the past years, with NMP PCH HayaBusa as the 4-way world champions since 2014.

The Tigers' new team record average in Australia was still more than enough though to fend off all other 4-way teams behind the medal positions

Qatar's Formation Skydiving project continues. The Falcons will have to think of how to get closer to the next medal position in 8-way, while the Tigers have to catch up with NMP PCH HayaBusa, Arizona Airspeed and the French national team in 4-way Open to get to the medal rankings. The Falcons seem to be in the better position...