posted Jul 15th, 2019 - The last NSL Live Talk with coach Gary Smith on June 26th had the lineup changes of NMP PCH HayaBusa and Arizona Airspeed as the main topic. He has been directly involved after coaching the Belgian 4-way world champions for several years.

Gary Smith has also been coaching Qatar's Formation Skydiving teams, first the Falcons in 8-way, now the Tigers in 4-way. The Falcons with Gary Smith won the first FAI medals for Qatar at a FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving, and then Gary Smith and Jeremie Rollett switched their coaching jobs.

The Falcons with Jeremie Rollett will try to defend their FAI bronze medals and try to turn bronze into silver or even gold, while Gary Smith has the bronze medal position for the Tigers as a goal.

The recent evaluation of the French situation after the Coupe de France was the topic for the newest NSL Live Talk with Gary Smith, which was recorded on July 15th. As the coach of the Qatar Tigers, he is keeping his eyes especially on the French 4-way Open Class team, who have won the FAI bronze medals in 2016 and 2018.

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He is also still in touch with the British national team in 4-way Women, NFTO, and offers his advice, even though Roy Janssen is now coaching the team. NFTO have the FAI gold medal position in Tanay 2020 in their minds. Performance and progression of the French national team in 4-way Women is a big factor in this race for FAI medals.

The new NSL Live Talk with Gary Smith finds him once again in a situation where he is deeply involved, this time with the Qatar Tigers. His work with NMP PCH HayaBusa will not change much, despite the recent news from Belgium and Arizona. Plans are made, and the Belgians are in a good position for the 2019 and 2020 season.

It seems like he is also in a good position with the pursuit of FAI bronze medals with the Qatar Tigers. The Qatar Falcons 8-way team benefited from the absence of a French 8-way in Australia last year and won the bronze medals quite easily. It will be much more challenging for Jeremie Rollett to defend the 3rd place successfully or place even better.

The situation in the 4-way Open Class event does not seem to offer a "soft year" for any of the top contenders in Tanay 2020.

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FAI World Meet 2018			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		21,L,B,G	22,18,17	19,7,O	J,16,12	10,A,D,15	Q,M,F,C,N	H,20,P,13	6,14,11	E,2,5	4,1,3	Total	Avg
1	NMP-PCH Hayabusa	BE	32	21	27	24	22	62	22	20	27	22	279	27.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	26	21	27	24	24	60	26	22	27	20	277	27.7
3	Aerodyne Realfly	FR	29	19	24	23	24	52	20	17	24	19	251	25.1
4	Qatar Tigers	QA	24	14	24	21	22	53	21	18	20	17	234	23.4
5	Echochamber	SE	25	16	21	17	20	48	14	18	21	15	215	21.5
6	Amnesya	IT	24	14	20	18	18	48	18	14	21	15	210	21.0
7	Satori XL	UK	21	14	21	19	19	37	19	17	18	16	201	20.1
7	Airheads	CH	22	14	19	17	18	44	16	16	18	17	201	20.1
9	Evolution	CA	21	13	22	18	15	43	15	15	19	15	196	19.6
10	Airbus FSZ Saar	DE	21	14	17	17	16	45	15	14	18	15	192	19.2
11	Tanay Wolves	RU	22	14	18	17	16	35	17	14	18	14	185	18.5
12	Rotor Out	AU	21	13	18	14	16	32	13	13	18	14	172	17.2
13	CTR Optimum	BR	19	10	17	15	13	31	14	14	18	13	164	16.4
14	Papea Masculino	ES	17	13	18	13	13	28	14	14	13	12	155	15.5
15	Out of the Blue Project 20+	NL	16	11	13	14	15	28	15	15	14	12	153	15.3
16	Meraki	ZA	14	11	14	14	13	28	12	12	14	12	144	14.4
17	New Zealand	NZ	10	9	12	11	10	21	7	11	10	11	112	11.2
18	Paraguay	PY	10	8	10	7	9	17	7	8	10	8	94	9.4
19	Cyprus	CY	13	8	9	8	7	19	7	8	9	5	93	9.3

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The Qatar Tigers, in 13th place at their first world meet in Dubai 2012, 5th place in Chicago 2016 and 4th place in Australia 2018, seem to be right on track to the first set of FAI medals for Qatar in 4-way Open, and Gary Smith is fully aware of that.

The battle for the bronze medals next year will take place between the longest standing 4-way lineup of the Qatar Tigers and the newest and youngest French 4-way lineup to defend the 3rd place. The Qatar Tigers will exclusively train and compete in 4-way, while the French 4-way Open Class team has 8-way competition as the highest priority.

French national coach Mathieu Bernier is not planning to give up the FAI bronze medal position easily and without a fight. However, it will be very difficult to fend off the Qatar Tigers, who would probably claim the 3rd place in the world rankings at this point in time.

The situation is similar in 4-way Women where the current changes in France had an impact on the first official scores, and NFTO is getting ready to challenge the reigning world champions next year. The NSL News will follow up with more details of this exciting situation soon...