A total of 200 falcons raced on the opening day of the new season of Fazza Championship for Falconry–Telwah on Tuesday in Al Ruwayyah desert area, Dubai. Organised by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Centre (HHC), the falcon racing will run daily until January 14 next year.

The 200 birds participated in the Jeer Shaheen Public Category. HHC noted smart rings were attached to the falcons for smart monitoring of time. Falcons taking part in the competition are broadly separated into Farkh (under one year of age) and Jirnas (over one year), and each category has races for the Saker (Falcon) and Shaheen (Peregrine). There are also purebreds, hybrids – younger and older falcons.

In the first race (Farkh category) of the day, the falcon by Nasser Bathan Al Mansouri named ‘Batash’ won first place covering the 400-metre distance with a time of 16.610 seconds, followed by Abdullah Al Falasi’s bird “T47” with a time of 18.650 seconds, and coming in very close at third place was Khalifa Sultan Al-Hafri’s bird 'K1' with a time of 18.651 seconds.

In Jirnas race (400-metre distance), Rashid Saeed Al Mansouri’s falcon ‘Jefar’ won first place with a time of 17.634 seconds, followed closely in second place by Ahmed Al Marar’s “Sweed” with a time of 17.779 seconds, and in third position came ‘S7’ bird by Abdullah Rashid Al Mansouri 1t 18.033 seconds.

In the main run, Farkh, first place was achieved by ‘F69’, owned by Juma Al Qubaisi with a time of 17.975 seconds, followed by Abdullah Rashid Al-Mansoori’s bird “007” with a time of 18.027 seconds, and third place was achieved by Obaid Saeed Al Mazrouei’s bird “Al Tawash” with a time of 18.115 seconds.

The race continues on Wednesday and the General Public – Farkh and Jirnas – category will continue until December 31.