posted Nov 29th, 2024 - There are not many indoor competition opportunities for 8-way teams, as it requires at least a 16-foot flying chamber to accommodate the size and maneuvers of 8-way teams. Weembi Lille is one of the few windtunnels in the world with a flying chamber that is large enough and that offers 8-way competition regularly.

The Qatar Falcons have made the trip to France several times since their first visit in March 2018 when they competed as a guest team at the French Indoor Nationals. They came back in November the same year for the Weembinamic 2018 at the same location.

They were obviously well prepared for the main event of the following year, the 8-way competition of the FAI Indoor World Championship. The Falcons arrived at Weembi Lille in April 2019 as the reigning 8-way bronze medalists after the FAI Outdoor World Championship in Australia 2018. They could not repeat their first FAI medal experience at the indoor competition, as France was back in 8-way action with a very strong lineup after missing the outdoor world championship, and Russia was still a participant at the international FAI events. The Falcons ended up in 4th place with their still standing 28.7 indoor team record average.

FAI Indoor World Meet 2019			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		L,17,4	A,F,3,13	15,18,6	D,8,O,N	P,E,11,9	M,Q,J,16	C,K,19,22	10,1,7	5,G,B,2	H,21,12	Total	Avg
1	Paraclete XP8	US	38	34	33	27	29	43	29	27	28	28	316	31.6
2	France	FR	37	33	29	27	27	44	26	30	27	29	309	30.9
3	Tanay	RU	31	32	29	27	29	42	27	28	25	27	297	29.7
4	Qatar Falcons	QA	32	31	29	27	30	40	24	25	25	24	287	28.7
5	MicroClim8	UK	25	19	22	19	20	31	19	20	19	18	212	21.2
6	Why Not?	PL	23	21	21	21	21	26	18	19	19	18	207	20.7

---

Paraclete XP8 - Qatar Falcons FAI Indoor World Championship 2019

---

Four years went by, including the corona virus break, before the Qatar Falcons would travel again to Lille in France, and they took the 1st place at the FS Weembi Cup 2023. They defended their title successfully in April this year.

The Falcons' next trip to Weembi Lille was neither for the Weembi FS Cup nor for the Weembinamic, which was just completed last week. The Qatar team arrived in Lille even earlier in November to compete as a guest team at the British Indoor Nationals 2024, which was hosted by Weembi Lille, as well.

British 8-way teams used to have the opportunity to compete indoors on home soil until the World Challenge 2019, which was hosted by Twinwoods Adventure in Bedford. It was the last 8-way competition in Great Britain before the new British Indoor Skydiving Association offered 8-way at the national indoor championship this month. The Qatar Falcons were naturally a guest team at the British indoor championship and did not have serious competition at the top of the leaderboard. In fact, the team in 2nd place was another guest team, the international QRF XONR8 lineup. Most of the QRF members started with indoor 8-way training and competition at Martial Ferre's events in France and at Paraclete XP, before the current lineup began to define itself in the past two years.

British Indoor Nationals 2024			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		E,11,G,O	3,A,P,19	1,22,B	9,L,17	18,J,N,4	15,16,13	12,M,5	C,Q,20,7	14,2,F	D,21,H,10	Total	Avg
1	Qatar Falcons	QA	30	31	28	23	31	30	26	26	22	24	271	27.1
2	QRF XONR8	FR	23	24	23	24	25	25	21	21	17	19	222	22.2
3	Air Gremlins	UK	18	13	22	20	24	22	12	15	15	15	176	17.6
4	008	UK	17	18	18	15	18	20	14	17	14	14	165	16.5
5	Deton8	UK	9	9	11	10	11	10	9	10	8	8	95	9.5
6	Wingin8	UK	9	7	6	9	12	12	12	8	9	8	92	9.2
7	Cark8	UK	5	10	7	8	10	5	9	10	8	7	79	7.9
Rank	AA Class		14,L,P	2,15	6,5	K,N,4	8,C,Q	10,H,J	16,7	E,19,G	3,M,D	1,0,18	Total	Avg
1	Forkyon	UK	4	8	8	11	9	9	10	8	12	10	89	8.9
2	Les Dragons En Chocolat	UK	7	4	8	9	3	7	7	9	7	7	68	6.8

---

Qatar Falcons - QRF XONR8 at the British Indoor Nationals 2024

---

The Qatar Falcons had to transition quickly from outdoor to indoor gear, which is usually the easier one compared to vice versa. They had completed Round 10 of the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships on October 10th, which was the end of this year's outdoor competition season.

The NSL News covered the situation of the Qatar delegation during the aftermath of the outdoor world championship on October 29th, which included the new Falcons 19.0 record average at Crystal Coast Skydiving. The conclusion of the evaluation was the potential of the Falcons to aim even higher than only at the silver medal position in the world.

Qatar has never won a gold medal in the 8-way history of Formation Skydiving competition, which has been dominated by the United States, France and Russia. The current situation is promising for the Qatar Falcons, even though they ended up miles behind GKXP8 last month. France and Russia have not even competed in 8-way at the last two outdoor world championships, France only with a recreational lineup in 2022. The U.S. team is facing a re-building situation, and the recruiting campaign is in full swing. At least the members of the Golden Knights 4-way team will most likely not be available any longer for 8-way training and competition. The Qatar Falcons seem to have a realistic chance to close the gap between 1st and 2nd place in the world, and they could even become a gold medal challenger. Coach Jeremie Rollett has the experiences of two 8-way gold medals for France in 2006 and 2008.

FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-way Open		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	GKXP8	US	19	-1	21	-1	22		26		21	-1	21	-1	25		24		37		23		239	23.9
2	Qatar Falcons	QA	16		18		19		21		17		16	-1	20		19		25	-2	19		190	19.0
3	Operation Adler	DE	14		14		11	-2	13	-1	13		14		15		14		20	-2	15		143	14.3
4	Netunos	BR	10		8		9		8		5	-3	9		12		9	-1	12	-1	10	-1	92	9.2
5	Ap8thy	UK	11		6	-1	8		11		6	-1	6	-1	10	-1	8	-1	14		11		91	9.1

---

GKXP8 - Qatar Falcons at the 26th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships, Video Footage Courtesy of FAI/ISC/InTime

---