posted May 13th, 2021 - The Qatar Falcons are the second 8-way team on the Shamrock Showdown Cloud leaderboard with scores and videos for all ten rounds. As it was probably for the French national 8-way team with the 22.0 average, the 18.1 for the Qatar Falcons must be encouraging in the run-up to the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020 this August.

The French performance matched the highest national average before penalties, as the NSL News mentioned in yesterday's Shamrock update. The Qatar Falcons suffered even significantly more point deductions (10) and still posted a new team and national record average.

The 17.0 average that won the 8-way bronze medals at the FAI Outdoor World Meet 2018 in Australia was the highest outdoor scoring number for the Falcons so far. Gary Smith was coaching the team to Qatar's first FAI world meet medals in Formation Skydiving competition, and Jeremie Rollett has now guided the same lineup to the next record level.

Gary Smith and Jeremie Rollett swapped their coaching jobs after the world meet in Australia 2018. Gary Smith is now preparing the Qatar Tigers for the battle for 4-way medals in Russia, while Jeremie Rollett has to defeat one of the three 8-way powerhouses to get back to a medal position. Even the 19.0 average before penalties would still leave the Qatar Falcons in an underdog position. However, there is still enough time and training left to continue with the impressive progression and become an even more serious challenger for France, Russia and United States.

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Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		1,J,3		Q,K,D,H,L		F,B,C,22		18,E,21		M,5,10		4,G,2		15,8,11		16,19,O		7,P,14		9,12,20		Total	Avg
1	France	FR	30	-2	25		28		19		18		23		20		22		17	-2	18	-1	220	22.0
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	23	-3	19	-2	21	-1	15		17		18	-1	15	-3	19		17		17		181	18.1
3	Tanay 8	RU	29	-2	26		25		16	-2	-		-		-		-		-		-		96	24.0
4	Airspeed XP8	US	28	-2	23	-3	24	-1	19		-		-		-		-		-		-		94	23.5
5	Rhythm 8	US	14	-1	13	-1	14	-1	9		-		-		-		-		-		-		50	12.5
6	Sandbaggers	US	8		5		7		-		-		-		-		-		-		-		20	6.7

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Qatar Falcons at the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021

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Qatar has a very young 8-way history, by far the youngest compared to this year's opponents. The country's Formation Skydiving competition project was launched in 2011, when teams from Qatar appeared for the first time on international leaderboards, the Tigers and Falcons 4-way teams at the Dubai Championship 2011, the Qatar Knights 8-way team at the USPA Nationals 2011.

The Qatar Tigers 4-way team of 2011, with three of the current members (Rashid Easa Al Kubisi, Hamad Rashid Al Marri, Abdulaziz Shafi Al Shammari) and Pavel Skotak on camera, were also a part of the Qatar Knights 8-way team at that time. The Qatar Knights finished with a 6.9 average at their first 8-way competition.

The 4-way and 8-way lineups were then separated and became their own and separate team projects in 2014. Rashid Easa Al Kubisi, Hamad Rashid Al Marri, Abdulaziz Shafi Al Shammari, Fahad Soud Al Shammari have been training and competing only in 4-way with the Qatar Tigers ever since.

The Qatar Falcons 4-way team of 2011 became the national 8-way team and began working with coach Marco Arrigo. Former NMP PCH HayaBusa member Luc Verstrepen took over the 4-way coaching work with the Qatar Tigers.

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FAI Outdoor 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
5	JYR8	AU	14	-1	14		13		17		11	-1	20		14		14		12		21		150	15.0
6	Airbus	DE	13		15		9	-2	15		11		16		12		12		10		16	-2	129	12.9
7	Brazil	BR	11		10		9		12		9		12		9		10		9		16		107	10.7

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Abdulla Ahmad Al Hammadi was in the first 8-way lineup, together with the three current Tigers, and he is still in the Falcons lineups who posted the 18.1 average at the Shamrock Showdown Cloud 2021.

He has five other team mates (Saad Salem Al Ali, Salem Rashid Al Senaid, Mohammed Mahmoud Al Shams, Abdulla Obad Salem, Belal Mohsin Alebbi) who were with him in the first 8-way lineup when 4-way and 8-way were separated. Ghanim Khalifa Al Kubaisi and Aziz Abdulwahab Al Motawa joined the Qatar Falcons in 2016, and the lineup has not changed ever since.

Pavel Skotak took over the 4-way camera for the Qatar Tigers, and Khalifa Saleh Al Ali has been filming the Qatar Falcons. Luc Verstrepen is now working with the next generation of 4-way competitors, the Cheetahs, together with Marin Ferre (Lions). Gary Smith and Jeremie Rollett together have brought the Falcons to the world's top level of 8-way competition.

The Qatar 8-way team was up to a 10.1 level a year after the 8-way start with 6.9 at the USPA Nationals 2011 and then posted a 12.4 average at the 5th Dubai International Parachuting Championship in November 2014. Two more years later it was a 14.6 average at the FAI World Meet 2016, followed by the FAI bronze medals in Australia 2018 with the 17.0 average. There does not seem to be a reason why the same Falcons would not be able to get to the 20-average level in August this year, which would have been contention for the very top spot at the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019...

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FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		13,11,16		P,22,4		O,7,21		9,20,G		18,15,L		K,10,3		6,14,C		1,M,A,17		F,D,Q,8		2,5,E		Total	Avg
1	Tanay 8	RU	19		26		18		20		23		21	-1	20		24		20		16		207	20.7
2	France	FR	20		24		18		19	-1	21		22	-1	19		23		19		17		202	20.2
3	Paraclete XP8	US	21	-1	24	-1	16	-1	18		21		20	-2	19		22	-1	19		18		198	19.8
4	Arizona Airspeed	US	18		21		16		18		16	-3	21	-1	17		17	-1	16		14	-1	174	17.4
5	Qatar Falcons	QA	16	-1	20	-1	14	-1	13	-3	17	-1	12	-5	15		19		15		14		155	15.5
6	Airbus	DE	14	-1	15		12		15		15	-1	15		12	-1	15		14	-1	12		139	13.9
7	Monster	US	12		13	-1	10	-1	12		14		13		12		15		11	-1	10		122	12.2
8	Amphibious Attack Tigers	US	11		16		10		11		9	-3	13	-1	14		10	-1	13		11		118	11.8
9	Groomed	UK	7	-2	9		8	-1	9		10		7		8	-1	10		13		7		88	8.8

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