posted May 11th, 2017 - High indoor scores have been posted on the latest leaderboard, which comes from Bahrain at half-time. The first six rounds have been completed at the 1st Arab Championship, which takes place at a newly built wind tunnel on the Arabian Peninsula.

Bahrain is the next country from the Middle East of the world that is showing more and more interest in the civilian Formation Skydiving competition.

Middle East teams and competitors have been a part of the military competition world for a long time, while they stayed away from civilian Formation Skydiving competition, with a few exceptions at world meets or world cups.

This changed significantly when the United Arab Emirates launched the Dubai skydiving project, with Eliana Rodriguez and Craig Girard heading the FS team part. Qatar began with a similar project almost at the same time, even though the country's teams still consisted of state police or military.

1st Arab Championship 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		20,22,J	8,5,18	K,P,G,12	M,19,4	7,E,11	2,B,O,D	16,14,17	21,L,F,6	A,9,H,3	Q,10,15	C,N,12,D	Total	Avg
1	Qatar Tigers	QA	20	22	29	29	28	30	-	-	-	-	-	158	26.3
2	Bahrain	BH	10	9	18	19	21	22	-	-	-	-	-	99	16.5
3	Dubai Asaar	AE	14	13	16	17	19	17	-	-	-	-	-	96	16.0
Rank	AA Class		6,4	N,D,H,21	K,C,G,11	20,15	O,F,M,L	A,8,7	E,P,19	B,14,9	J,2,Q	22,18	A,21,K	Total	Avg
1	Qatar Falcons Maroon	QA	18	27	24	19	44	20	-	-	-	-	-	152	25.3
2	Qatar Falcons White	QA	18	20	24	14	52	21	-	-	-	-	-	149	24.8
3	Bahrain	BH	17	20	19	14	40	18	-	-	-	-	-	128	21.3
Rank	Rookie		A,F,G	N,K,H	M,E,L	Q,P,C	O,J,B	D,J,H	C,A,L	Q,K,M	O,B,P	F,D,G	E,N,J	Total	Avg
1	Bahrain	BH	29	22	33	19	30	29	-	-	-	-	-	162	27.0
2	Oman Wolf	OM	23	21	18	17	23	16	-	-	-	-	-	118	19.7
3	Skydive Qatar	QA	17	9	16	10	17	10	-	-	-	-	-	79	13.2

Indoor training and competition have been boosting the participation in Formation Skydiving activities in the Middle East just as much as in other areas. Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain all have their own indoor flying facilities by now, and Bahrain is hosting the country's first international indoor competition.

It also serves as the first test event for hosting the FAI Indoor World Cup in 2018 at the same location.

The field of teams in Bahrain this week includes the teams of the Qatar delegation who had almost a 1-year break from civilian Formation Skydiving competition. The Qatar Tigers then competed at the Wind Games 2017 and missed the World Challenge 2017. Now they are back in meet action and close to their previous performance level after the first six rounds.

The Qatar Falcons 8-way team has split up the lineup in two 4-way teams who are battling fiercely for the top spot on the AA Class leaderboard.

World Challenge 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total	Avg
Rank	AA Class		F,G,D,P	9,J,18	E,7,M	19,13	4,L,8	2,21	C,14,20	1,K,O	A,6,11	N,B,H,Q	15,22	Total	Avg
1	Skydive University Slovakia	SK	29	17	29	14	16	16	13	20	17	35	-	206	20.6
2	Bahrain	BH	26	17	30	15	17	16	15	17	16	28	15	197	19.7
2	Alakran	ES	27	20	27	14	15	16	13	18	17	30	14	197	19.7
4	HF Junior Cubs	CZ	23	19	27	12	16	14	17	19	17	31	-	195	19.5

World Challenge 2017			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie		D,G,M	L,H,K	B,N,C	J,F,E	O,P,Q	A,E,M	A,C,O	Q,K,B	F,J,L	D,N,H	Total	Avg
1	Bahrain	BH	25	24	24	21	24	32	23	23	33	23	252	25.2
2	Omega4way	PL	21	21	26	28	25	30	19	27	31	18	246	24.6
3	Aeropotam's	BE	15	19	21	29	21	26	23	18	29	18	219	21.9

The teams from Bahrain are not new to the audience and the skydiving community, at least not in the AA and Rookie Class, after the recent trip to Bedford.

Bahrain's AA Class lineup won the silver medals at the World Challenge after a successful extra round with Alakran from Spain.

The Rookie Class team even won the gold medals in Bedford after a challenging duel with Omega4way from Poland. The Bahrain rookies are scoring even higher this week in their home chamber.

There is also a team from Dubai in Bahrain after a complete withdrawal from Formation Skydiving competition last year. A combination of former Dubai Asaar members made the trip to Bahrain and tries to keep up with the home team after little training.

The Qatar Tigers are completely out of reach, and they will hopefully measure themselves up directly with the other best teams in the world soon again at coming events...