posted Oct 25th, 2024 - The NSL News has paid plenty of attention to the remarkable coaching work of Gary Smith, Luc Verstrepen and Jeremie Rollett with Qatar's Formation Skydiving delegation over the years. Qatar Falcons have added one set of 8-way bronze medals (2018) and two sets of silver medals (2022, 2024) to their country's collection, Qatar Tigers three consecutive sets of 4-way bronze medals.

Gary Smith was also working with the signature lineup of NMP PCH HayaBusa who won 4-way gold medals for Belgium in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021. He began with his work for the Qatar delegation while he was still guiding NMP PCH HayaBusa to their two world championship titles in 2018 and 2021. He started with the Falcons 8-way team and won the first FAI medals ever for Qatar with the 3rd place in Australia 2018.

Then he switched to 4-way coaching with the Tigers for the Qatar delegation who won the first 4-way medals for their country with 3rd places in 2021 and 2022. Former NMP PCH HayaBusa member Andy Grauwels, who won four gold medals (2014, 2016, 2018, 2021) under the guidance of coach Gary Smith, then continued the coaching work with the Tigers, who added another set of bronze medals for the Qatar delegation this month at Crystal Coast. Gary Smith was not even present at the outdoor world championship, which was the first one that he missed since1995. He was busy with his new and current work assignment for Qatar that includes the development of new 4-way teams and competitors for the country's Formation Skydiving delegation.

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	-2	16	-1	21		18	-1	14	-1	20	-1	21		23		18		198	19.8
2	Airbus Illertissen Oceanside	DE	18	-1	26		17		20		18		15		20	-1	21		20		16	-1	191	19.1
3	ISR Fireflash	BE	19		24	-1	16		21		17	-1	16	-1	17	-1	20		21		17		188	18.8
4	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	16	-1	22	-3	14	-1	18	-1	18	-1	15		17	-1	17	-2	16	-4	17		170	17.0
5	AYRO	BE	17		22	-1	11		18		16		12		16		18		16	-1	14	-1	160	16.0
6	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	14	-1	23		13		14		12	-3	13		15	-2	16		17	-1	13		150	15.0
7	Dark NeVa	DE	12		18		13		13		15		12		15		14		15		12		139	13.9
8	Falco	BE	14		16	-3	11	-1	13		14		12		15		16		14		12	-2	137	13.7
9	Mriya	UA	10		15	-1	9		12		10	-1	10		11		12	-1	10	-1	8	-1	107	10.7
10	Schnelle Schnecken	UK	7	-2	13	-1	9		9		9		6	-1	9		12		8		9		91	9.1
11	Shinobi	NL	9		13		7		8		7	-1	6	-1	9		11		8	-1	8	-1	86	8.6

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Qatar Lions and Cheetahs at the ESL Championship 2024

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The group of new 4-way competitors, in the lineups of Lions and Cheetahs of the past years, were finally graded based on their current potential, which created the Lions as the top team behind the Tigers, and the Cheetahs with the second lineup in the time period of developing new world class competitors for Qatar's future national 4-way and 8-way teams.

Lions and Cheetahs both eventually took on the complete dive pool in the AAA Class in 2021, after a few years in the lower categories. It was the same year that the Tigers won the first FAI medals for Qatar under the guidance of Gary Smith at the Tanay Mondial 2020.

That's the time when it became a critical situation for Gary Smith, as he was coaching the world champion team who defeated the Qatar Tigers on their way to the top spot in the world. Eventually he had to drop his official coaching support for NMPPCH HayaBusa and work only for and with the Qatar Tigers in a full-time position.

It became even more interesting when Gary Smith was assigned to the current job of developing new world class competitors for Qatar, together with Luc Verstrepen. The new talent is supposed to be ready for replacing members of the national 4-way and 8-way teams whenever it might become necessary.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open Top 4		14,G,13		J,C,17,12		D,A,21,P		18,B,H,F		E,L,O,8		22,2,K		6,7,16		9,20,15		3,M,N,4		5,1,10		Total	Avg
1	Arizona Airspeed	US	24		27	-1	33		36		31		23		26		26		25		22	-1	273	27.3
2	Aethers	FR	22		23	-4	33		32	-1	29		23		22		21		25		22		252	25.2
3	Qatar Tigers	QA	21		20	-3	26	-2	32		29	-1	20		21		20		19	-2	20		228	22.8
4	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	19		21	-2	25		25		25	-1	20		19		17		21	-1	20		212	21.2

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Qatar Tigers at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships, Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/ISC/InTime

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The next step of assigning the most promising Qatar talent of the previous Lions and Cheetahs lineups to join forces in the Lions team and continue to bring the Cheetahs to higher levels of 4-way performance has been creating the current situation, where the Lions keep reducing the performance and scoring distance to the national 4-way team, the Tigers.

The Lions have reached the 20-average level and won their last two competitions where they were opposing international fields of 4-way teams. They outscored NMP PCH HayaBusa and Out Of The Blue at the BENELUX Championship before both national 4-way teams of Belgium and Netherlands would compete at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships earlier this month.

Then the Lions followed up with the 1st place at the ESL Championship 2024 where they defeated the German national team in 4-way Open, Airbus Illertissen Oceanside. NMP PCH HayaBusa eventually placed 4th at Crystal Coast, Airbus 5th and OOTB took the 8th place, tied with Apex. The Qatar Tigers, bronze medal winner at the outdoor world championship, did not have to worry this year, as they are still two average points ahead of the Lions. However, Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen obviously know how to guide 4-way teams to the world's top level, and the 2025 season might bring the Lions even closer to the Tigers' scoring level. It could soon become an internal Qatar race for the status as the national 4-way team.