posted May 19th, 2025 - The members of the Qatar Falcons 8-way team have become used to climbing onto the podium during award ceremonies at FAI indoor and outdoor world championships and world cups. They finished even in silver medal positions at the last three outdoor events in Eloy 2022, Norway 2023, and Crystal Coast 2024.

It is different at indoor world championships, which are more rare for 8-way teams naturally. Only 16-foot flying chambers have enough space to accommodate an 8-way competition, and only two FAI world championships included 8-way leaderboards in the past, the first one at Weembi Lille 2019, the second one at Paraclete XP last month.

Qatar's 8-way coach Jeremie Rollett, former 4-way and 8-way world champion for France, takes the Falcons around the world to find indoor training and competition opportunities as much and as often as he can. The situation is still not the same compared to U.S. 8-way team XP8 with their 16-foot home chamber at Paraclete XP and French 8-way teams with Weembi Lille's 16-foot chamber. On the other side, the Qatar Falcons had unexpected outdoor opportunities once Russia did not continue to participate in FAI/ISC events and France did not have the same budget situation any longer that supported 8-way training and competition both in the past.

FAI Indoor World Championship 2025			1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		Total	Avg
Rank	8-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	GKXP8	US	39	-1	30		31		40	-1	29	-2	24		28		32	-2	37		35	-2	325	32.5
2	D'Arc8	FR	38		26		26	-1	34	-1	24	-1	22		22	-2	27		29	-3	27		275	27.5
3	Qatar Falcons	QA	37		22	-4	26	-2	30	-5	25	-2	20	-2	22	-3	26	-2	24	-3	25	-3	257	25.7
4	China	CN	24		18	-1	19	-1	23	-2	22		17		18		19	-5	22		18	-3	200	20.0
5	Netunos	BR	20	-3	18		20	-1	23		19		13	-1	17		20	-3	13		15	-3	178	17.8
6	Team Canada	CA	18	-1	14		13	-3	17		15	-2	14		10	-3	17	-1	14		11	-2	143	14.3

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D'Arc8 - Qatar Falcons at the FAI Indoor World Championship 2025

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However, Qatar's formation skydiving delegation began to climb up the leaderboards at FAI/ISC events before Russia's departure and when the first 8-way indoor competitions took place at Paraclete XP in 2012. It was one year after the first 8-way team from Qatar competed as a guest team in 8-way Intermediate at the USPA Nationals 2011.

The first lineup of the Qatar Falcons then started with a 10th place at their first world championship in Dubai 2012, and they have attended each indoor and outdoor world championship ever since, with one exception in 2014. They finished in 4th place in Ottawa 2016, right behind the three 8-way powerhouses from the United States, France and Russia.

It was time for the first FAI medals when France did not send a team to Australia 2018, and the Falcons took the 3rd place, with coach Gary Smith, and behind Golden Knights (US) and Tanay (RU). France was back with a small and very strong delegation in Tanay 2020, where Russia participated last time. Thus, only the 4th place was available for the Falcons in August 2021. Qatar's patience, persistence and resources were rewarded a year later when France was represented by a recreational 8-way team in Eloy 2022, and the Falcons also won the first FAI silver medals for Qatar, still in the absence of a strong Russian 8-way team.

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

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D'Arc8 - Qatar Falcons at the FAI Outdoor World Championship 2024

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They defended the 2nd place successfully at Crystal Coast 2024, where France and Russia both were not represented. However, at least France returned to FAI indoor competition with an 8-way team, D'Arc8, after the 2nd place in 2019 and tried to put the same pressure on GKXP8 at at Weembi Lille and at Tanay 2020.

At the end, GKXP8 won by 50 points over Martial Ferre's quickly assembled lineup at the end of last year, and the Falcons had to go out of their way with the attempt to defend the 2nd place that they won at the outdoor world championship last year. The Falcons had to try and match the French speed to have a chance, which they actually accomplished.

Both teams finished with a total number of 283 scoring formations within the total of 500 seconds of working time for the ten rounds. However, the Falcons were not used to the pace, and the judges decided that D'Arc8 will get the silver medals. They deducted a total of 26 Falcons points due to infringements, while the French team lost only eight points, the same penalty total as the winner. It was a strong and well trained French indoor team this time, and the Qatar Falcons are getting closer to the point where they will be able to take on the strongest 8-way teams in the world, maybe even the United States, who have won all 8-way indoor and outdoor world championships consecutively since 2012.