A young participant at the Youth Falconry Championship, yesterday.
Doha: A total of 15 falcons qualified for semifinal of Al Tala Championship in the competitions held yesterday. The competitions were held under the 13th Qatar International Falconry & Hunting Festival (Marmi), under the patronage of H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani.
Organised by Qatar Al Gannas Society, the Festival will continue until January 29 at Sabkaht Marmi, Sealine. The competitions of the seventh day of the Marmi Festival witnessed challenge and excitement in a number of festival tournaments.
Yesterday morning, the qualifying rounds for Al Tala’ tournament were held for groups from 31 to 35, and one of the groups postponed in the previous days, resulting in, from six groups, three falcons for Mubarak Sultan Mubarak Al Muhannadi qualified after setting a new record of timing in the championship, where his bird appeared less than 20 seconds after taking off.
Mohamed Mubarak Al Ali, head of Al Tala’ committee, said that the seventh day was distinguished by a clear vision with low wind. He said that the competition was held between six groups, five within the fixed program and a group which was postponed due to weather condition.
Al Ali said that the falcons performed and the birds of Mubarak Sultan Al Muhannadi were distinguished by their strong vision, and the falcon was at an appropriate height, which enabled it to see the Houbara bird for hunting.
He said that one of the falcons was able to reach its prey within 20 seconds, which indicates the readiness and good training of the falcon, so that 15 falcons have qualified so far for the semi-finals.
Al Ali said that it is expected that the semi-finals will witness tough competitions, as the strongest birds qualified in the group qualifiers, especially since the track is 2 km, and the falcon that it crosses is really a distinctive and strong falcon.
He said that He said that Al Tala’ tournament is one of the important tournaments in the festival, which has its audience and also has its falconers. Al Ali said that falconers are training and working to qualify their falcons for this challenge, which is linked to a specific time during which the falcon must qualify, and therefore it is a strong competition between falconers.
The evening period yesterday was full of interesting competitions, and it started with the Youth Falconry Championship (6-10 years), in which the participants competed for information about falconry tools and falcon components.
