posted Sep 10th, 2019 - The 8-way competition at the German Outdoor Nationals turned out to be not only the qualification event for the German national team Airbus Illertissen for the next world meet in Tanay 2020. The NSL News reported on September 4th how Airbus mastered the qualification requirement of a 12.9 average quite easily.

The visit of Qatar's national 8-way team, the Falcons, and Martial Ferre's Veloce QRF team gave the competition also an international atmosphere. The Qatar Falcons are the reigning FAI bronze medalists after the 3rd place at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia. Veloce QRF added a number of different nationalities to the 8-way competition in Kassel, Germany.

Martial Ferre's QRF lineup was mainly a combination of French and German 8-way competitors this time, plus Marco Arrigo from Italy. Other members of the QRF signature lineup (Seth Erickson - Sweden, Jeremie Héritier - Switzerland, Paul Hofstee - Netherlands, Kjetil Nordin - Norway) were not available for the outdoor competition, and Martial Ferre invited French competitors to fill the open slots (Nikos Pavlidis, Jean-Pierre Roussanidès, Charles Rommel, Daniel Lamberty on camera).

Charles Rommel was a member of the French 8-way team that won the silver medals behind Paraclete XP8 at this year's FAI Indoor World Meet at Weembi Lille and posted a new 8-way indoor world record with the 44-pointer in Round 6. Martial Ferre and Charles Rommel were team mates at this event.

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German Nationals 2019 /th>			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		E,G,M,2		B,4,1		9,K,L,O		13,15,14		22,16,3		21,6,D		5,J,,12		P,17,7		10,H,C,11		8,F,19		Total	Avg
1	Qatar Falcons	QA	16	-1	24		16		14		20		14		14		14	-1	16		13		161	16.1
2	Airbus 8-way Illertissen	DE	14		18	-1	14		13		17		13		14		14		11	-2	11	-1	139	13.9
3	Veloce QRF	IN	12	-2	17		14		11		17		11		12		13		11		11		129	12.9
4	Coriolis	DE	6		9		8		7		8		7		5	-2	7		7		6		70	7.0
5	Luftschl8	DE	7		8		7	-1	5	-2	6		5	-1	6		6		4		6		60	6.0
6	MeightO Meissendorf	DE	5		7		6		6		5		4		6		6		4		4		53	5.3

Qatar Falcons - Airbus Illertissen - Veloce QRF at the German Nationals 2019

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Nikos Pavlidis and Jean-Pierre Roussanidès are experienced 8-way competitors, as well. They trained and competed with Martial Ferre in other Veloce 8-way teams. However, they all missed the 8-way competition at the French national championship this year and traveled to Germany instead.

Marco Arrigo, who still trained and competed with eX3MO in 2018, has been a member of the Veloce QRF signature lineup for several years. He was in Kassel as Airbus Illertissen's 8-way coach and joined Martial Ferre's Veloce QRF lineup, as well. He also competed with three of his 8-way team mates (Petra Baerenfaenger, Henning Stumpp, Uwe Soppa) for Dark Energy in 4-way and won German bronze medals.

Marco Arrigo's 8-way team could not keep up with the well trained German national team, Airbus Illertissen. However, Dark Energy took the 4-way bronze medals away from the four Airbus 8-way members of the Bardarbunga 2.0 lineup.

Veloce QRF had still outscored Airbus not too long ago at the Weembinamic 2018 indoor competition with Martial Ferre's best-trained lineup. However, the German 8-way team was much better prepared for the outdoor competition and finished ten points ahead.

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Weembinamic 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way		P,12,6	C,10,3	K,G,B,22	L,A,8,4	M,G,O,18	H,D,N,11	7,2,E	17,J,21	16,5,13	F,9,19	Total	Avg
1	Qatar Falcons	QA	26	27	29	24	25	28	18	21	21	20	239	23.9
2	Weembi Girls	FR	23	25	24	24	24	23	22	22	23	22	232	23.2
3	Veloce QRF 1	IN	23	22	24	20	23	23	17	15	22	18	207	20.7
4	Véloce Vair8maxxx	FR	20	22	22	21	21	22	15	19	20	16	198	19.8
5	Airbus	DE	18	17	18	18	21	20	17	14	20	17	180	18.0
6	Veloce QRF 2	FR	16	18	18	18	18	19	15	15	17	16	170	17.0
7	Les French Tuktuk	FR	17	15	17	15	17	19	15	16	15	15	161	16.1
7	After 8	FR	13	18	16	19	18	17	16	15	15	14	161	16.1
9	Hotchpotch	BE	16	17	18	15	17	17	15	13	15	14	157	15.7
10	8 Way Otter	FR	14	16	18	17	18	16	12	16	14	14	155	15.5
11	Witbiz	FR	13	17	12	16	18	14	16	13	14	13	146	14.6
12	Veloce QRF 4	FR	14	14	13	15	17	13	14	14	17	14	145	14.5
13	Veloce QRF 3	FR	12	17	15	17	18	15	14	12	12	12	144	14.4
13	IN'huit	FR	12	15	18	14	16	15	13	12	15	14	144	14.4
15	Le Grand Huit	FR	13	12	15	14	12	13	9	12	14	11	125	12.5
16	Rojuhafacribensé	FR	9	8	11	10	10	10	10	7	7	10	92	9.2

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Neither Airbus nor Veloce QRF were able to get anywhere close to the Qatar Falcons in Kassel. All three teams had met each other at last year's 8-way Weembinamic, a month after the Falcons had won the first FAI medals for their country in Australia. The Qatar Falcons took the 1st place at Weembi Lille and came back to the same place in April 2019 for the indoor world meet.

They could not repeat the success of Australia. France was back in 8-way this time and competed with a very strong team. Paraclete XP8, France and Russia's 8-way team from Tanay won the FAI indoor medals.

It will not become any easier for the Qatar Falcons in the near future, as the same three countries plan to compete for gold medals next year in Tanay. The Qatar Falcons won in Germany with a 16.1 average, which is below the 17.0 in Australia 2018.

Coach Jeremie Rollett had to deal with a personnel change right before the competition in Germany and lost one of his team members, Aziz Abdulwahab Al Motawa, who will not come back for training and competition. The alternate stepped in for him on a very short call. The team will need some time to accommodate the new full member, which will make it even more difficult to keep up with the three 8-way powerhouses from the United States, Russia and France. The Qatar bronze medals are in jeopardy...