posted Dec 13th, 2021 - Qatar's Formation Skydiving delegation at the USPA Nationals 2021 included the 4-way teams Cheetahs and Lions and the national 8-way team, the Falcons. Qatar's national 4-way team, the Tigers, FAI silver medalists at this year's outdoor world meet, had to compete at the CISM World Championships and could not make it to Eloy timely.

It was not the first visit of the Falcons 8-way teams at USPA Nationals. In fact, Qatar's 8-way team's visits to the United States began in 2012 on the 8-way Intermediate Class leaderboard. They came back three years later and have not missed the annual visit in the United States ever since, except for the 2020 event, which was canceled due to the pandemic.

The previous competition visit was for the FAI Outdoor World Cup 2019 though, which was hosted by Skydive Arizona, as well. The Falcons were back this year for the USPA Nationals at the same place, a few months after the completion of the seven rounds at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020.

They met again the U.S. national 8-way team in Eloy, Airspeed XP8, who came back from Russia with the gold medals and the William H. Ottley Sword for 8-way Formation Skydiving competition, also known as the Excalibur.

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USPA Nationals 2021			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		2,10,K		M,8,21		5,17,9		N,O,1,F		E,C,B,11		O,12,G,6		7,A,4		3,15,H		22,18,13		14,L,16		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	US	13	-1	17		17		25		21		18		22		27		18		22		200	20.0
2	Golden Knights	US	13	-1	17		15		24		19		17	-1	16	-2	23	-1	19		19		182	18.2
G	Qatar Falcons	QA	16		16		15		21	-2	14	-4	16	-1	19		20	-2	16		20		173	17.3
3	The Expendables	US	15		13	-1	13	-1	19		17		15	-1	19		20	-2	17		17		165	16.5
4	Prison 9	US	12		11		11		15	-1	13		11	-1	14		16	-1	11		13		127	12.7
5	Le Jacques Huit	US	6		9		9		12		9		9		9		10		6		9		88	8.8
6	Forced Open	US	7		9		7		11		9		9		9		8	-3	10		8		87	8.7

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Airspeed XP8 - Qatar Falcons at the FAI Tanay Mondial 2020

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Qatar Tigers and Airspeed XP8 both teams did not perform on the same level as they did at the world meet in Tanay. The U.S. team was pressured to the highest level by the French 8-way team in Russia, and they had to come up with the best they could offer.

The Qatar Falcons cannot challenge the best 8-way teams in the world at this point in time, and they visited Eloy again to collect additional competition experiences. Coaches Gary Smith and Jeremie Rollett both know very well of the value that competition experiences have, and the Falcons did not come to Eloy for another opportunity to possibly outscore the U.S. team.

The 17.3 average of the Qatar Falcons does not look very exciting after the 18.7 in Tanay. However, the competition draw at the world meet included an 8-way Super Sequence in Round 5, which helped all teams to lift their averages. It was also the round where Airspeed XP8 actually won the gold medals with the 31-pointer and a 5-point advantage just for the round over France.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		1,9,A		Total	Avg
1	Airspeed XP8	US	20		23		22	-1	23		31	-1	23		24		166	23.7
2	France National 8-way	FR	20		23		25		24		26	-1	25	-1	22	-1	165	23.6
3	Tanay 8	RU	18		21	-1	20		23		26		23		22		153	21.9
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	17		17		19		18		22		19	-1	19		131	18.7
5	Kazakhstan	KZ	5		9		6	-2	10		7	-1	12	-1	12		61	8.7
6	Belarus	BY	4	-1	6		4	-2	5	-2	7		8	-1	2	-1	36	5.1

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Airspeed XP8 - Qatar Falcons at the USPA Nationals 2021

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The Falcons had never won or tied a round with Airspeed XP8 before visiting Eloy this year. Then came the first round at the USPA Nationals, and the Qatar team came out of the starting blocks like never before. The 16-pointer was the sole highscore for the round and created a 3-point lead over the 8-way world champions and the Golden Knights, who both had one point deduction.

Only the Airspeed reunion lineup of The Expendables managed to be only one point behind the Qatar Falcons, who were still up by two points after Round 2. Airspeed XP8 finally caught up with the Falcons in Round 3, while both teams were still tied on the top of the 8-way leaderboard.

This was a unique situation for the Qatar Falcons in Eloy. They had been hopelessly behind after the first three rounds at the world meet, with a 12-point difference to Airspeed XP8 after Round 3 in Tanay. In Eloy, the U.S. national team finally carried the taken lead after Round 4 easily over the finish line and to a 20.0 average.

The Qatar Falcons finished behind the Golden Knights in 3rd place as a guest team. They surely collected a new experience that they had not made before, with the exciting leaderboard in the first three rounds. They also finished significantly closer to Airspeed XP8 compared to the world meet (18.7 - 23.7 in Tanay and 20.0 - 17.3 in Eloy). They have a good reason to visit again next year, which will happen at the FAI World Meet 2022 in Eloy.