A total of six winners emerged from the final rounds of the Dau event yesterday at the sixth Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival at Sabkhet Marmi near Sealine, Mesaieed.
The winners were Ali Rashed Abdullah al-Nuaimi (UAE), Team Marmi (a group of Qatari competitors), Mohamed Ibrahim Abdullah al-Oyouni al-Bouanain and Rumaizan al-Dosari (Saudi Arabia), and Khaled Rashed Aba al-Zamat and Mohamed Saleh al-Qumra al-Marri (Qatar).
The Dau event serves to showcase the falconer’s skill at training his falcon for speed. A falcon is required to cross, in the shortest time, a distance of 400m toward its owner, who is signalling to approach at the event’s finish line.
The 16th round of the Hudud Al Tahaddi challenge, which includes 33 participants and is the last round before the finals, is set for today.
The Hudud Al Tahaddi challenge is a competition in which falcons seek to obstruct the flight of homing pigeons which are trained to fly to another point, many kilometres away.
The Emirati winner al-Nuaimi said the current edition of the Qatar Falcons and Hunting Festival has been enjoyable across all its events.
“I wanted to compete this year hoping to gain some valuable experience in falconry, to get a feel of how such competitions are today,” he added.
One of the Qatari winners, al-Zamat, dedicated his victory to the festival’s patron, HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and the organising committee for their contributions toward making the festival such a resounding success.
“I’ve been competing in falconry events for some time now, and I’ve participated in a number of local and international championships, but this edition of the festival has a special place for me, as it was very competitive, featuring some of the finest falconers in the Gulf region,” he added. The festival, organised by the Gannas Society, runs until Saturday.
A section of spectators at the festival yesterday.
