Humaid Al Tayer upstages Hussain Lootah during thrilling duel in Qarmoosha final of General Public category 

DUBAI, 18th December 2016:  The final round of the National Day Championship for Falconry (Furoukh category) organized by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center (HHC) on Saturday 17th December Team F3 and MRM Falcon share the honours in the Sheikhs category while Humaid Al Tayer’s falcon produced a stunning victory in the final event of the day in the General Public category. 

Record numbers competed in the third edition of the Furoukh (younger falcons) Championship in the Pure Shaheen, Jeer Tibah, Pure Jeer and Qarmoosha events in the final round of events for the Sheikhs and General Public categories.

The first Fazza Championship for Falconry for the season 2016/17 saw a high level of competition as falconers vied for glory overs five days in brilliant sunshine which helped in fast timings.

Ms. Suad Ibrahim Darwish, Director of Championships at HHC, congratulated the winners and extended her appreciation to all participants for making the championship a success.

“The close competition in the final round reflected the high standard during the championship which brought the best out the participants. The final standings saw fractions of seconds separating the winners from the rest of the contestants as they attempted to break championship records. The finals was full of thrills and excitement,” she said.

“This makes our efforts to develop the sport over the last few years even more satisfying. It reinforces and sustains the culture of traditional sports and inspires us to improve in the organization of the championship to attract the best professionals in falconry,” added Ms. Suad Ibrahim Darwish.

Team F3 produced three out of four winners in the Sheikhs category setting the pace clocking the fastest time of the day of 17.820 seconds to clinch the Jeer Shaheen category.

Khalifa bin Mujren produced the second winner for F3 when his beautiful falcon named Mazun clocked the best time of 17.821 seconds.
“I’m happy with the timing and I knew he would win because he did well in qualifying,” said Khalifa who was pipped into second place by his F3 team mate Rashid bin Mujren in the Qarmoosha event.

Khalifa’s falcon clocked 18.539 to top the leaderboard only to be outdone by Rashid’s falcon named Mirage who recorded the fastest time of 18.282.
“This bird qualified first and it was performing well in the past two days. I was always confident he would win,” said Rashid.

MRM Falcon denied F3 a clean sweep as their top entry in the Pure Jeer final clocked 18.245 while F3’s best performer recorded 18.368.
The General Public category witnessed some intense rivalry and high standard of competition in the finals. 

Khalifa Nasser Al Hajiri appeared to have secured the Jeer Shaheen event having clocked 18.823.

However, Mubarak Nasser Al Khaili’s falcon lived up to his billing clipping 0.178 seconds to win the thrilling duel clocking a winning time of 18.645 seconds.
Hazza Al Mahmood’s falcons dominated the Jeer Tibah with his winner clocking 19.270 while Abdullah Rashid Al Mansoori’s falcon closed the gap but had to settle for second place clocking 19.497.

Jumaa Saif Al Makoodi won the Pure Jeer event convincingly with his flacon clocking 18.561, 0.389 seconds faster than Mohammed Khalifa Al Mansoori (18.950) who had two best performers among the top three.

Perhaps the best came in the last event of the final as Humaid Al Tayer upstaged the top falcons of Dubai Falcon Center owner Hussain Nasser Lootah who were in contention to win the Qarmoosha race.

Lootah’s falcons clocked times of 19.294, 19.267 and 19.228 to take turns in topping the leaderboard.

But to their disappointment Al Tayer rounded off a thrilling week of competition when his falcon named Aghadir raced to victory clocking a remarkable time of 18.758 seconds.  

“Aghadir is a place in Morocco. I love the city, that’s why I called this bird Aghadir. 

I know the bird is strong enough to win this race,” said Humaid who was overjoyed with his win.

Fans and visitors to the championship were astounded by the high level of competition and were enthralled by the performance of falcons. 

“Usually a bird gets himself the names depending on the story of the bird.

Sometimes the name of breeder is used as code word and it just sticks or something crazy like my friend. He used to have a bird called plastic because she swallowed a piece of plastic which got stuck and they had to remove it with surgery. They called the bird plastic afterwards. There is always a history to it,” said Moritz Dapprich, a former falcon breeder from Germany resident in Dubai for the past six years.

“Timings depends strongly on conditions. If the wind is ahead they are slow. If there is no wind they are faster. If wind is from behind they can be even faster,” he added.

The official sponsors of heritage championships organized by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Center are Al Tayer Motors, Land Rover, Dubai Airports, Dubai World Trade Center, AW Rostamani (Arabian Automobiles), Global Village and Al Oula Radio.

Final results:
Sheikhs Category
Jeer Shaheen: 1. F3 17.820 seconds 2. F3 17.966 3. Al Dhafra Falcons 18.034
Jeer Tibah: 1. F3 17.821 2. F3 17.887 3. MRM Falcon 17.969
Pure Jeer: 1. MRM Falcon 18.245 2. F3 18.368 3. MRM Falcon 18.403
Qarmoosha: 1. F3 18.282 2. F3 18.539 3. F3 18.575

General Public Category
Jeer Shaheen: 1. Mubarak Nasser Al Khaili (18.645) 2. Khalifa Nasser Al Hajiri (18.823) 3. Khalifa Nasser Al Hajiri (18.849)
Jeer Tibah: 1. Hazza Al Mahmood (19.270) 2. Abdullah Rashid Al Mansoori (19.497) 3. Hazza Al Mahmood (19.527) 
Pure Jeer: 1. Jumaa Saif Al Makoodi (18.561) 2. Mohammed Khalifa Al Mansoori (18.950) 3. Mohammed Khalifa Al Mansoori (19.043)
Qarmoosha: Humaid Mohammed Al Tayer (18.758) 2. Hussain Nasser Lootah (19.267) 3. Hussain Nasser Lootah (19.294)