posted Jul 6th, 2011 - First there was nothing. Well, a little bit. In fact, there was a 0.8 average after the eight rounds of the Dubai Championship 2010.

The Falcons from Qatar posted this meet average, and it was the first time that a 4-way team from Qatar attended a bigger meet.

Then it took only a year until the Falcons finished with an 11.5 average at the Dubai Championship 2011 - and until they began to love 4-way competition as much as Carl Daugherty loves big-ways...

It is pure coincidence that Carl Daugherty, living 10-way legend and big-way expert, is partially responsible for the progression of the Qatar teams.

He has not only taught them how to yell "Skydive", or "Big-Way" or "4-Way", he was also one of the AFF instructors in DeLand who has worked with many AFF students from Qatar who are now turning a lot of 4-way points, at least some of them with the Tigers and the Falcons.

Dubai Championship 2010			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		20,D,14	4,C,9	L,16,12	10,5,J	3,O,22	G,19,Q,7	H,21,1	13,P,N,K	Total	Avg
9	Oman		7	11	8	5	8	8	7	8	62	7.8
10	U.A.E.		3	10	8	7	6	9	8	10	61	7.6
11	Ukraine		6	11	8	6	8	5	9	6	59	7.4
12	Russia 4way		3	3	1	0	2	3	0	4	16	2.0
13	Qatar Falcon		0	2	0	0	2	0	2	0	6	0.8
14	Saudi Arabia A		0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0.1

However, Solly Williams is the person who is mainly responsible for the scores that the Qatar Tigers and Falcons are currently posting. He was hired by the Qatar military managers who decided that the country needs a better international representation in skydiving.

Solly Williams supervised the whole process between AFF and selection for the 4-way teams and has been working with the teams ever since.

The Falcons are only Qatar's "B-Team". The Tigers even posted a 13.5 average in Dubai this January and left all other teams from the Middle East in the dust.

They are actually the official winners of the Gulf Cup 2011, far ahead of the team from the United Arab Emirates (10.6) and two other Gulf Cup contenders.

The Tigers and the Falcons are far from being done. They are actually still more at the beginning of their 4-way competition career. None of the team members has reached the total of 1,000 jumps yet. There is in fact no skydiver in Qatar who has so many skydives. The 13.5 average in Dubai this year has a different value considering this situation.

Dubai Championship 2011			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		P,17,18	M,N,F,3	H,A,6,B	Q,1,C,14	4,10,15	16,O,J,22	K,2,E,11	G,9,8	Total	Avg
7	Monaco Rebootizer Aerial		10	19	16	14	11	17	15	13	115	14.4
7	France Air Force		10	18	18	14	11	14	15	15	115	14.4
9	Qatar Tigers		13	14	17	12	10	14	15	13	108	13.5
10	Qatar Falcons		9	14	13	11	9	12	11	13	92	11.5
11	U.A.E.		9	11	13	8	9	12	11	12	85	10.6
12	South Africa		9	14	12	9	8	9	11	11	83	10.4
13	Germany Black Moon		8	8	11	8	9	10	7	12	73	9.1
14	Germany Connatural		5	10	9	6	6	11	10	12	69	8.6

The NSL News had the opportunity to meet with the members of both teams and with one of the managers who is in charge of the project in Qatar, Director Eid Almutawah.

Solly Williams was the main communicator in this new NSL Talk session, which reflects the challenges he was facing when he accepted the job.

He needed the help of an interpreter before some of the team members began to pick up the English language step by step and camp by camp.

The clip of the NSL Talk includes a few training videos of the Tigers, which were filmed by Pavel Skotak, team videographer since the beginning of the project.

The Tigers and the Falcons visited DeLand for another intensive training camp in June. The Tigers will represent Qatar at this year's military CISM World Championships in Rio, Brazil, the same event that NMP-PCH Hayabusa and the Golden Knights attend before traveling to the World Cup 2011 in Germany. The Tigers are not registered for the World Cup, not yet...

The NSL News was asking the teams during the NSL Talk session whether the Formation Skydiving competition community can expect the Qatar teams to compete at the World Meets and World Cups in the future. This decision will eventually be made by the military leadership, of course. However, the team members seem to be eager to join the open competition at the big events.

It seems like the center of the skydiving world slowly shifts towards the Middle East. Dubai is the host of the World Championship of Formation Skydiving in 2012. Dan BC's Dubai 500 project prepares to bring the big-way world record up to this incredible number. In the meantime, BJ Worth and his World Team have a 444-way in Qatar on the agenda.

Dubai did not have a home team yet at the Dubai Championship. However, Craig Girard and Eliana reported that they have recruited a local team that they want to bring up to the international 4-way level, as well. Solly Williams has a head start in 4-way with his Qatar Tigers and Falcons. He hopes that the Tigers will finish the upcoming competition in Rio much higher than with the 13.5 average at last year's CISM Championships or the 13.5 average in Dubai. The videos show that the Tigers move quickly...

A few Tigers also like big-ways and plan to join the World Team's 444-way on home turf. They will probably come back to DeLand for the Kaleidoscope Dives at SkyQuest 2011 in November.