Feathers fly at falcon festival

Professional falconers and falcon owners took part in four qualification rounds on Friday on the fourth day of the King Abdulaziz Falconry Festival. (SPA)

• The birds and their owners were battling it out in the 400-meter Al-Melwah competition
• The star performer in the first round of the Gear Pure Category for Professionals was Amin bin Abdullah Al-Mallah

RIYADH: Professional falconers and falcon owners took part in four qualification rounds on Friday on the fourth day of the King Abdulaziz Falconry Festival.
Organized by the Saudi Falcons Club and held in Malham, north of Riyadh, the birds and their owners were battling it out in the 400-meter Al-Melwah competition.
The star performer in the first round of the Gear Pure Category for Professionals was Amin bin Abdullah Al-Mallah, who took first and third places with his birds 0016 and 0018. Barghash bin Mohammed Al-Mansouri took second place.
In the second round of the Gear Pure Qarnas Category for Professionals, Armizan bin Abdullah Al-Dousari took first place with his bird Mutrib, followed by Amin bin Abdullah Al-Mallah with Duja and Al-Mansouri with Samdan.
Falconer Nour bin Ghazay Al-Mutairi won the third round of the Qarmousha Gear Category for Professionals with Al-Rafiha, followed by Abdulhadi bin Abdullah Al-Mutairi with SM and Fahd bin Mohammed Al-Mansouri with Al-Quri.
In the fourth round of the Qarmousha Gear Qarnas Category for Professionals, falconer Amin bin Abdullah Al-Mallah took all three of the top spots with his birds Al-Qahira, Al-Diriyah and Jim. The winning bird set a best time of 16.987 seconds.