posted Apr 29th, 2025 - The NSL News has mentioned regularly in the past years how the small country of Qatar, with a population of barely three million people and only a few hundred thousand Qatari citizens, has consistently increased the participation in the formation skydiving competition community and in other skydiving disciplines.

The first medals at FAI events were evidence that Qatar can now be considered one of the powerhouses in formation skydiving competition. United States, France and Russia used to dominate this part of competitive skydiving since 1985 until Belgium entered the international stage with signature team NMP PCH HayaBusa and other teams who followed the momentum. The Czech Republic is on its way to join the club with its very successful junior program, while Qatar is already established as a powerhouse.

The Tigers became the signature team for Qatar, as HayaBusa has been for Belgium. The recent indoor and outdoor events provided more evidence how Qatar keeps building a strong foundation for the future, based on the available resources and the high-quality work that professional coaches have done for Qatar's formation skydiving competition project. Gary Smith, Jeremie Rollett, Andy Grauwels, Luc Verstrepen have been coaching the teams and the promising candidates, while other experiences AFF instructors and coaching staff help the Qatar delegation to increase the number of skydivers and potential 4-way and 8-way competitors in the near future.

Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		10,O,F,7		21,20,3		Q,G,2,5		B,19,P,1		H,9,11		16,14,6		K,E,A,22		J,15,8		4,C,12		17,N,D,M		Total	Avg
G	Aethers Medjay	FR	33	-1	22	-1	32	-1	32		36		27		35		23	-1	27		45	-1	312	31.2
1	Golden Knights	US	31		21	-1	27	-2	31	-1	34		23	-1	30		24		23	-3	40	-1	284	28.4
2	Tunnel Vision	US	30	-1	20	-1	27	-2	27	-1	32		24		31		24		24		38		277	27.7
G	Arizona Airspeed	US	29		21	-1	24	-3	26		32		23		29		24		22	-1	41		271	27.1
G	Qatar Lions	QA	27	-2	20	-1	23	-3	27	-1	27	-2	20	-1	26	-3	20	-2	22		37	-1	249	24.9
3	SDC Rhythm XP	US	26	-3	17	-3	23	-3	26	-1	26	-4	18	-3	29		20	-2	22		37	-1	244	24.4
G	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	25		17	-2	24		24	-1	28		21		29		20	-2	20	-2	35	-1	243	24.3
4	Killers of Hopes and Dreams	US	23	-2	17	-2	24		23	-1	27		19		27	-1	20	-1	22		31	-1	233	23.3
5	XPerimental	US	25		15	-1	23		22		24		18		21	-2	19		19		28	-1	214	21.4
6	Buc-ee's and Boot-ee's	US	22	-2	15		19	-1	22		22	-1	18		22	-1	16	-2	19		22	-3	197	19.7
7	GPTNT	US	18	-1	15	-1	20		19	-1	21	-1	15		19		17		14		20	-1	178	17.8
8	Kirk and the Double D's	US	15	-4	12	-1	20		22		18	-1	15		19		15	-2	14	-2	27		177	17.7

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Qatar Lions - Qatar Cheetahs at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2025

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The Qatar project began with the Tigers and Falcons in 4-way before the Falcons eventually turned into the 8-way team who have won a few world championship and world cup medals by now. The Tigers are now assigned only to military CISM championships, and the Lions have become the national team in 4-way Open.

Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen have also been guiding the Cheetahs to the same performance level, even though they had to accommodate several personnel changes inside of Qatar's formation skydiving competition hierarchy. One of the Lions was recruited for the Tigers lineup when the CISM team needed a new team member, and the Cheetahs had to give two team mates to complete the new Lions lineup.

Lions and Cheetahs have been sharing their coaches and the travel agenda with each other for a few years, and both new lineups visited the Wind Games 2025 at the beginning of the year before competing as guest teams at the Paraclete XP Indoor Championship 2025. The Lions came back to Paraclete XP for the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025 where each country is represented by only one team. The new Lions lineup finished with a highly respectable 26.0 average, which almost matched the record average of the previous and well trained lineup.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	4-way Open		D,4,17		C,22,10		5,P,Q,18		1,M,J,O		16,6,19		H,8,21		12,13,A		L,G,K,9		15,F,7		E,2,N,B		Total	Avg
1	Aethers Medjay	FR	32		23	-1	35		41		28		27		29		45		32		37	-2	329	32.9
2	Arizona Airspeed	US	27	-2	24		31		34		26		26	-1	27		49		34		36		314	31.4
3	NMP PCH HayaBusa	BE	29	-1	22	-2	33		40	-1	24	-3	23	-4	26		43	-4	28	-3	38	-3	306	30.6
4	Skywalkers Junior	CZ	28		22	-2	30		39		25		23	-4	25		38	-2	27	-3	33		290	29.0
5	NFTO	UK	24	-1	22		26	-1	28	-4	22	-1	22		22	-1	36		29		30		261	26.1
5	Fly X Amnesya	IT	26		19		25	-2	32	-1	23		22	-2	23		32	-5	27	-4	32		261	26.1
7	Qatar Lions	QA	26	-1	19	-3	28	-1	31	-5	24		21	-2	22	-1	34		24	-4	31		260	26.0
8	Echochamber	SE	23	-1	17	-2	27	-1	32	-2	22	-1	22		25	-1	34	-3	27	-2	28	-4	257	25.7
9	Papea	ES	26	-1	18	-3	25		35	-2	19	-2	21	-3	21	-2	33	-3	28	-2	29	-3	255	25.5
10	Out Of The Blue	NL	22		18		21	-3	29	-2	21		21	-1	20	-1	28	-3	25	-1	24	-2	229	22.9
11	Realfly Fire	CH	22		14	-3	23		31		19		18	-3	18	-1	26	-4	21	-3	25	-1	217	21.7
12	Netunos	BR	20	-1	16		20	-3	26	-2	18		18	-1	18		27		21	-1	19	-3	203	20.3
13	Singapore	SG	16		10	-4	11	-4	17	-5	14	-1	15	-2	11	-4	15	-3	15	-2	19	-1	143	14.3
14	Thailand	TH	8	-1	7	-2	7		11	-5	7		7	-3	5	-3	8	-4	11		8	-3	79	7.9

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NFTO - FlyX Amnesya - Qatar Lions at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025

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In fact, the Lions were only one single point behind NFTO (UK) and FlyX Amnesya (IT) who shared the 5th place behind Skywalkers Junior (CZ). Qatar's next national team in 4-way Open is slowly and consistently moving up the rankings towards the medal positions that the Tigers were used to.

The Cheetahs had a break after the attendance of the U.S. indoor championship and then were back in action a few months later at the Shamrock Showdown 2025. The Lions took their own break after the indoor world championship and traveled back to Qatar.

Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen did not only bring the new and young Cheetahs back to the 18+ level of the previous lineup at Skydive DeLand. They also introduced two new lineups in the Qatar project who attended their first 4-way competition. The Qatar Juniors A and B teams were signed up for the A Class, as they have not trained much of the technical 4-way dive pool yet. The competition videos are showing that the youngest and newest team members of the Qatar delegation are well trained with the basics of formation skydiving competition that Gary Smith and Luc Verstrepen provided them with. It will probably not take long until they will move up to AA Class training and competition, where Lions and Cheetahs both started, as well.

Shamrock Showdown 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	AAA Class		17,M,10		20,19,F		18,22,K		N,G,3,16		O,E,P,21		9,L,5		6,13,1		C,J,Q,4		D,8,A,H		12,11,14		Total	Avg
1	Aethers	FR	25		23		21		24		34		32		23		32		29		18		261	26.1
2	Golden Knights	US	19	-2	24		18	-2	24		28	-1	26	-2	20		27	-2	26	-1	15	-2	227	22.7
3	Arizona Airspeed	US	23	-1	21		18		22		27	-2	28	-1	18	-1	24	-4	26		17		224	22.4
4	SDC Rhythm XP	US	20		17	-2	17		16	-2	24	-3	24	-1	19		18	-7	21	-1	15		191	19.1
5	Qatar Cheetahs	QA	17	-2	18		14		18	-2	24		19	-2	15	-1	24		21		12	-1	182	18.2
6	Airbus 4-way Illertissen	DE	15	-4	14	-2	13		16		19	-3	19		15		23		19		12		165	16.5
7	Jen and the Double D's	US	15		13	-1	13		13	-1	18	-1	13		13		18	-2	17		9	-2	142	14.2
8	4Action	US	9	-1	10	-1	8	-1	9		13	-1	10		9		11	-3	12		9		100	10.0
Rank	AA Class		F,M,K,1		20,19		18,22		N,G,H,15		O,E,P,21		9,L,B		6,13		C,J,Q,4		D,8,A		11,14		Total	Avg
1	DeLand's Hit Show	US	14		6	-1	6	-1	9		14		7	-4	9		12		9		7		93	9.3
Rank	A Class		F,M,K		19,21		4,A		N,G,H		O,E,P		9,L		6,B		C,J,Q		D,8		7,2		Total	Avg
1	Qatar Juniors B	QA	19		9		11		13		17		12		12		14		8		7		122	12.2
2	Door BlockerZ	US	17		5		8	-1	8		13	-1	8		8		7	-2	5	-1	7		86	8.6
3	Qatar Juniors A	QA	11		6		6	-1	7		10	-1	7		6	-1	10	-1	6		7		76	7.6
4	JumpFlorida Pop's Tards	US	8	-2	4		6		7		8		4		7		4		6		6		60	6.0

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Qatar Cheetahs - Qatar Juniors A - Qatar Juniors B at the Shamrock Showdown 2025

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