posted Sep 6th, 2022 - The story of Qatar's Formation Skydiving competition project began in 2011, when the country's first delegation attended the USPA Nationals at Skydive Arizona. The Qatar Knights competed in 8-way Intermediate, Qatar Tigers and Qatar Falcons in 4-way Advanced.

Different Qatar delegations have followed up ever since with regular visits at USPA Nationals where they can collect more than enough competition experiences. In fact, the Qatar Falcons 8-way team missed only four USPA Nationals since the start of the project in 2011, including the year 2020 when the USPA Nationals were canceled due to the corona virus crisis.

The Falcons entered USPA's 8-way Open Class competition in 2015 for the first time, after two previous visits in the 8-way Advanced/Intermediate Class. They tried to stay as close as possible to the best U.S. 8-way teams, which have always included the 8-way world champions in the time period since the Qatar Falcons launched their first 8-way team in 2011.

The Qatar Tigers 4-way team was still a part of the 8-way lineup in 2011, together with the Falcons 4-way team. The Qatar delegation eventually separated the events and selected the Qatar Tigers as the national 4-way team, and the Qatar Falcons got their own 8-way lineup.

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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	29	21	18	17	33	224	22.4
2	Tanay	RU	21	21	17	22	20	28	16	18	18	28	209	20.9
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	19	16	15	18	14	21	16	14	14	23	170	17.0
4	MicroClim8	UK	17	15	12	14	15	21	15	12	13	18	152	15.2
5	JYR8	AU	14	14	13	17	11	20	14	14	12	21	150	15.0
6	Airbus	DE	13	15	9	15	11	16	12	12	10	16	129	12.9
7	Brazil	BR	11	10	9	12	9	12	9	10	9	16	107	10.7

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First 8-way medals: Qatar Falcons in Australia 2018

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The results of Qatar's Formation Skydiving project followed after years of consistent training and competition. The Qatar Falcons won the first FAI world meet medals for their country with the 8-way bronze medals in Australia 2018.

The Qatar Tigers followed up with their own FAI bronze medals three years later at the FAI Tanay Mondial in August last year and have not attended any meets ever since, while the new 8-way lineup went back to the place where the story began and competed at Skydive Arizona in October 2021. Once again, the Qatar Falcons ended up behind the two best U.S. teams, Airspeed XP8's new world champions and Golden Knights.

The Qatar delegation had added 4-way farm teams to their project in the meantime, the Cheetahs and the Lions, who were showing their own results at the USPA Nationals 2021. They finished in 2nd and 3rd place on USPA's AAA/Advanced Class leaderboard, ahead of 16 other U.S. 4-way teams in this category.

Qatar Tigers coach Gary Smith and Qatar Falcons coach Jeremie Rollett informed the NSL News that the complete Qatar delegation will once again compete at this year's USPA Nationals, which are scheduled to begin with Round 1 in 4-way this Friday.

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FAI Tanay Mondial 2020			1		2		3		4		5		6		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		O,19,Q,5		17,B,E,P		H,15,12		M,N,7,F		K,L,C,4		J,18,16		Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32		41	-1	23		43		30	-4	24	-1	193	32.2
2	SDC Rhythm XP	US	25	-2	35	-5	22		39		26	-4	22		169	28.2
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	-1	38	-2	19		34		26		19	-2	160	26.7
4	Aerodyne Cypres Lille	FR	23		33		19		32		24		21		152	25.3
5	Papea Masculino	ES	18	-2	27	-2	14		24	-4	19		16	-1	118	19.7
6	Kazakhstan	KZ	19	-1	23	-1	13		24	-1	17		15		111	18.5
7	Out of the Blue	NL	12	-2	25		15		23	-2	18		15	-1	108	18.0
8	Adventure Flyers	PY	12		15		11		14	-1	14		7		73	12.2
9	Indonesia	ID	3	-2	6	-1	1	-3	10	-4	1	-2	5	-1	26	4.3

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First 4-way medals: Qatar Tigers in Tanay 2021

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The Qatar teams need the competition practice after their last outdoor event in October 2021 at the USPA Nationals. The timing is next to perfect, as the FAI outdoor world meet will follow more than four weeks later. There will still be enough time to work on specific areas in the meantime if necessary.

There is no doubt that this year's Qatar delegation is the strongest one in the history of the country's Formation Skydiving competition project. The Qatar Falcons will most likely turn the bronze medals of 2018 into silver at the world meet this year, as only Paraclete XP8 will place ahead of the Falcons and defend their world championship title successfully. Russia, in 3rd place last year, will not be present in Eloy, and the French 8-way team will not be able to offer serious opposition this time, neither for XP8 nor for the Falcons.

NMP PCH HayaBusa and Arizona Airspeed will carefully watch the Qatar Tigers at the USPA Nationals. The Tigers have left no doubt that they are aiming at FAI medals and even the top spot. There is a realistic chance that the Tigers could also turn their bronze medals of 2021 at least into FAI silver this year.

The Cheetahs and the Lions were already strong enough for USPA's 4-way Open Class leaderboard in 2021, where they would have outscored a few U.S. teams. It would be no surprise if both teams are planning to join the Qatar Tigers on the 4-way Open Class leaderboard next week...