posted Sep 26th, 2024 - Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen have updated the NSL News on a regular basis in the Coaches Corner regarding the progression of Qatar's Formation Skydiving competition project, last time on April 30th, after the completion of the FAI Indoor World Cup 2024 in China, where Tigers, Lions and Cheetahs all competed at the same place and the same time.

The Tigers, Qatar's national team in 4-way Open, had finished in 3rd place, Lions 8th, Cheetahs 13th. They separated again after the event, and Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen continued their work with outdoor training for Lions and Cheetahs, while the Tigers went their own way with coach Andy Grauwels.

Lions and Cheetahs then both competed at the BENELUX Championship, followed by the ESL Championship. Both teams had concluded their 2023 outdoor competition season at the BENELUX Championship 2023, Lions with a 17.3 average, Cheetahs with 16.6 in 2nd and 3rd place behind Dutch national team Out Of The Blue. Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen explained in April that they had made some changes in the lineups of the two teams, which defined the Lions in the position behind the Tigers, the Cheetahs behind the Lions. The changes in the lineups generated impressive results for the Qatar delegation.

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NSL Live Talk in the Coaches Corner with Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen

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The new Lions, with members of both previous lineups, had distances themselves significantly from the Cheetahs already at the indoor world cup (25.2 - 19.9) in April. The same happened at their first outdoor competition this year in Belgium (20.9 - 16.8) where the Lions won the competition.

On the way to the top of the leaderboard of the BENELUX Championship they had to pass the Dutch national team Out Of The Blue and NMP PCH HayaBusa's new lineup, and they did so with the 20.9 average.

The Lions were not done taking on 4-way teams in the world's Top 10 positions. Lions and Cheetahs both traveled to Germany the same month of September, and the Lions defeated two more world-class teams, Germany's national team in 4-way Open, Airbus Oceanside Illertissen, and Belgium's ISR FireFlash. They also demonstrated for the young Czech Skywalkers Junior that it is possible to catch up relatively quickly with the teams on the 4-way Top 10 level.

However, only NMP PCH HayaBusa was one of the full-time opponents of the Lions, who were selected for their own full-time skydiving competition career, and the former Belgian 4-way world champions are still in the phase of bringing their newest team mate Ray Lodens back to the world's top level.

BENELUX Championship 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		O,M,1,B	22,C,15	J,G,D,18	A,8,10	D,13,P,11	12,K,E,3	20,H,21	7,14,N	9,2,19	F,6,L,4	Total	Avg
1	Qatar Lions	QA	27	18	23	17	21	19	20	21	21	22	209	20.9
2	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	31	16	23	15	22	19	19	21	20	21	207	20.7
3	Out Of The Blue	NL	27	13	19	15	17	15	15	18	17	18	174	17.4
ESL Championship 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		B,4,1	Q,O,E,F,22	10,14,9	5,6,L	C,3,J,15	12,17,13	K,A,19,21	8,7,H	G,20,N,D	P,11,18	Total	Avg
1	Qatar Lions	QA	20	27	16	21	18	14	20	21	23	18	198	19.8
2	Airbus Illertissen Oceanside	DE	18	26	17	20	18	15	20	21	20	16	191	19.1
3	ISR Fireflash	BE	19	24	16	21	17	16	17	20	21	17	188	18.8

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Qatar Lions - NMP PCH HayaBusa - Out Of The Blue at the BENELUX Championship 2024, Video Footage Courtesy of Rogier Carper

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The Qatar Lions have defeated three national 4-way Open Class teams this month, and they will still not compete for Qatar at the upcoming outdoor world championship, where the Tigers will try to defend their FAI bronze medals or aim at even higher medal positions. The Lions have to move ahead of the Tigers before they can represent their country, or any members have to be selected for the national 4-way or 8-way teams.

Neither Gary Smith nor Luc Verstrepen will be present at the FAI Outdoor World Championships 2024, where former HayaBusa world champion Andy Grauwels will be coaching the 4-way Tigers, Jeremie Rollett the 8-way Falcons. Gary Smith will have to follow the world championship action from Spain, where he and Luc Verstrepen will continue the indoor and outdoor training for Lions and Cheetahs.

Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen both are closely connected to the Qatar national teams and NMP PCH HayaBusa, Luc Verstrepen as former inside center for the Belgian national team, Gary Smith as the coach who guided NMP PCH HayaBusa to their first world championship gold medals in 2014, and the next ones in 2016, 2018 and 2021.

He was also coaching the Qatar Falcons to the first FAI medals for Qatar with the 3rd place in 8-way Open in Australia 2018. Then he followed up with two 4-way bronze medals for Qatar in Tanay 2021 and Eloy 2022 before he was assigned to generating the next generation of Qatar world-class competitors, together with Luc Verstrepen. It seems like he is again on the path to the world's top level as a coach.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Power Rankings		TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	Aethers	FR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Airbus Illertissen Oceanside	DE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Agera	NO	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Apex	UK	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Echochamber	SE	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	Papea	ES	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Out Of The Blue	NL	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	Netunos	BR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	Havoc	AU	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-