posted Dec 2nd, 2020 - The Qatar Tigers and Falcons are back in action. The NSL News mentioned a few times this year that Qatar's Formation Skydiving delegation was facing serious difficulties in conducting any training or competition for their world-class national 4-way and 8-way teams.

The training activities were over when the teams returned to Qatar after the February camp at Skydive City in Florida. They also had to withdraw from participation at the Shamrock Showdown 2020, which was canceled due to the corona virus crisis shortly after.

The Qatar teams had to stay at home and returned to training in October with a camp in Portugal. Without much preparation, the Qatar Falcons then performed the eleven rounds of the NSL Cloud Mondial during their first outdoor training after the long break. The Falcons 8-way team was not ready for competition rounds at that time.

Qatar Tigers coach Gary Smith then informed the NSL News that the 4-way team had received permission to resume with training and to travel again to Florida. It was an opportunity to catch up with the team and coach Gary Smith, who had recently commented the 4-way competition of the NSL Cloud Mondial, together with David Grauwels and Joey Jones. The same panel was back with an evaluation of the 4-Way FS Skydiving Championships last week in Eloy.

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NSL Cloud Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		22,21,M		5,C,J,H		7,3,6		10,E,9		18,L,B,F		D,20,15		17,P,A,1		8,Q,12		N,13,K,11		G,14,O,2		4,19,16		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	21		40		25		26		34		22	-2	29		20		24		24		21		286	26.0
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	20	-1	36		23		23	-1	33		23		28	-1	21		24		23		19		273	24.8
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	20	-1	36		21		24		31		21	-1	26		19		23		23		19		263	23.9
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	20		32	-2	18	-2	23		29	-1	20	-1	26		18		23		20		18		247	22.5
5	Paraclete XPG4	US	17		22	-2	17		17		20	-1	17		21		16		17		17		13		194	17.6
6	CTR Optimum	BR	17		21		17		17	-1	17	-2	15		16	-1	12	-1	14		14		13	-2	173	15.7
7	Ayro	BE	12	-1	16		12	-1	12	-1	16		12		17		11		14		10	-3	12		144	13.1
8	SDC RhEvolution XP	US	12	-1	14	-2	12		11		15	-1	12		11	-2	10	-1	13		9	-2	-		119	11.9
9	Airbus Illertissen	DE	13		16		11		10	-1	16		8	-1	13		7		12		7	-1	-		113	11.3
10	Out of the Blue	NL	15		22	-1	15		20		23		-		-		-		-		-		-		95	19.0

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Qatar Tigers at the NSL Cloud Mondial 2020

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Qatar Tigers coach Gary Smith, and with him the whole NSL News audience, had the opportunity to follow the new U.S. showdown between Arizona Airspeed and SDC Rhythm XP. He has also been working together with NMP PCH HayaBusa for several years. He had started his work with the Belgians to prepare them for winning their first world championship title in 2014.

The Qatar Tigers and SDC Rhythm XP both are aiming at defeating the reigning 4-way world champions. However, NMP PCH HayaBusa are obviously not too worried about their coach's cooperation with the Qatar Tigers at the same time.

Gary Smith needed a special permission to leave the Netherlands, where he is residing on the island of Texel, and to travel to the United States. He will have to commit himself to a period of quarantine time after returning to Europe. However, the first training camp of the Qatar Tigers after the most recent longer break was important enough for the Qatar delegation to request his coaching services for the training at Skydive City.

He said that he had just completed a comprehensive debriefing of the NSL Cloud Mondial with the Tigers when the NSL News visited Skydive City on Tuesday this week. Team and coach were just in the middle of working on specific issues that were conclusions of the debriefing.

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Qatar Tigers resume outdoor training at Skydive City

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FAI Outdoor 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
6	Amnesya	IT	24	-2	14		20	-1	18		18	-1	48	-5	18		14	-2	21	-1	15		210	21.0
7	Satori XL	UK	21		14	-1	21		19		19		37	-3	19		17		18	-1	16	-1	201	20.1
7	Airheads	CH	22	-3	14	-2	19	-2	17	-1	18		44		16		16	-2	18	-1	17		201	20.1
9	Evolution	CA	21	-1	13	-2	22		18	-1	15	-3	43	-2	15	-5	15	-2	19		15		196	19.6
10	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	-1	14	-1	17	-5	17		16	-1	45	-1	15	-3	14	-1	18	-1	15		192	19.2

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The Qatar Tigers could not attend the event in Eloy. However, coach and team are planning to copy the competition rounds during the training camp in the coming days.

The three expected top contenders for medals at the FAI Mondial 2020 in Tanay next year were all on the same leaderboard at the NSL Cloud Mondial, where the reigning 4-way bronze medalists from France were missing. The Qatar Tigers will have to pass the French national team in 4-way Open to get to a medal position, and the chances are realistic, as the French national 4-way teams have their main focus on the 8-way event.

In fact, the Qatar Tigers don't even think too much of the French 4-way opposition. They have much higher goals in mind, which reach even beyond the U.S. national 4-way team, SDC Rhythm XP. Goal is to compete with NMP PCH HayaBusa for gold medals, which somehow interferes with coach Gary Smith's other job with the Belgians.

Comparing the leaderboard of the NSL Cloud Mondial with the results in Australia 2018 is showing the Qatar Tigers much closer to the current U.S. national team in 4-way Open, SDC Rhythm XP, who will be the opponent at the next world meet. The ten rounds of the Eloy meet will give Tigers and coach Gary Smith new and fresh data related to the same topic. At the same time as the Qatar Tigers are working on getting closer to the U.S. national team, SDC Rhythm XP is trying to find ways how to close the gap towards the Belgian top spot...