Qatar’s skydiving team readies up for World Military Parachuting Championships in Slovakia

Qatar’s national skydiving team — which operates under the Qatar Air Sports Committee within the Joint Special Forces — is in final preparations for the CISM 48th World Military Parachuting Championships (WMPC), set to open in Slovakia on Friday and run through Aug. 23.

The championships will bring together teams from 33 countries. Qatar arrives as the reigning champion of the Accuracy Landing event, a title it claimed at CISM Qatar 2025, and is determined to defend the crown on Slovak soil.

Widely regarded as one of the leading squads in the discipline, Qatar’s parachute team — known as Al Hadaf — has built up an impressive record in recent years. Among its milestones is a Guinness World Record for the largest parachuting canopy formation completed at night.

In the senior individuals category, Al Hadaf will be represented by Mohammed Al Marri, while Ali Al Yafei and Saleh Al Karbi are entered in the junior individuals category. The team events will feature Abdulaziz Abdullah, Khalid Shaja, Saleh Al Abidi and Mohammed Al Attas.

Team captain Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Hajaji noted that Qatar heads into the WMPC as defending champion and acknowledged that the competition will be demanding, with some of the world’s finest skydivers on the start list. Even so, he expressed confidence in the team’s ability to perform strongly throughout the event, pointing to a recent training camp that sharpened its technical and physical readiness and strengthened teamwork.

In a related development, Qatari international judge Mohammed Al Hajri will serve on the event’s officiating panel — a sign of the country’s expanding pool of expertise across the disciplines tied to air sports. (QNA)

Source: Qatar News Agency (QNA), Bratislava, August 12, 2026.