Two new winners moved past the eighth round of the Hudud Al Tahaddi challenge yesterday at the sixth Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival taking place at Sabkhet Marmi in the Sealine area of Mesaieed.
Falcons Marmi and Hazam, owned by Salem Mubarak Mohamed al-Shahwani and Saleh Nasser al-Shahwani respectively, managed to catch the homing pigeons which they chased during the event, following an exciting aerial chase.
The Hudud Al Tahaddi challenge is an event in which falcons seek to obstruct the flight of homing pigeons especially trained to fly away, and instead causing them to land.
The Tala’a event, which features 100 competitors subdivided into four groups of 25, begins today. Ali bin Nouro al-Marri, a member of the organising committee said that the event would begin at 6am, and urged participants to be present at the site on time.
“The Tala’a event tests the falcon’s ability to identify the location of the prey,” al-Marri explained. An electronic Habari bird (or bustard) is used in place of a real bird; it looks like a real bird in terms of shape, size and colour. The Habari is placed at a distance of 1km and time is counted from the moment the falcon is released.
The competition will be particularly strong this year, al-Marri predicted, given that the festival is in its sixth year, and organisers had already noted the ever-increasing standard at which hunters train and compete with their falcons over the years.
“On the sidelines of the festival, a shooting range has attracted a large number of visitors to the festival’s site,” observed Ahmed Mubarak al-Kuwari, the event’s organiser. The event is held from 9am to noon, as shooters target plates which are flung into the air within the shooting range.
The sixth edition of the Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival is being organised by the Gannas Society under the patronage of HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.



Winner Salem Mubarak al-Shahwani with his falcon Marmi.

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