Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth represented by Oman Camel Racing Federation (OCRF) will begin the final race of the season 2022-23 at Royal Camel Corps track in Barka on Sunday.
Oman Camel Racing Federation organised five events in this season including three races in corporate sector with support of Occidental Oman company in Thamrait, Adam and Ibri with cars as prizes. The fourth race was a general race in every governorate in Oman with cash prizes and one competition for camel beauty in Al Batinah Governorate with cars as prizes.
As many as 28 cars and 14 icons including gold and silver will be presented as prizes for the final race in six categories, ‘Hagayeg’, ‘Lagaya’, ‘Ardah’, ‘Al Ythaa’, ‘Al Thanaya’ and ‘Al Hool’ divided into four days, from February 26 until March 1.
Shaikh Said bin Saud al Ghafili, President of the Oman Camel Racing Federation, said: “The recent races organised in cooperation with the Royal Camel Corps have been big successes. The Al Bashayer Race in the Wilayat of Adam was a grand success due to the wide participations from Oman and GCC countries and great prizes were presented to the winners in various categories.”
“The final race of OCRF is of great interest from His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, supported by HH Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth. There is great financial support from the government to the cultural heritage as 28 cars and 14 icons will be awarded in the final race,” he added.
Mohammed bin Saud al Mughairy, member of Board of Directors of OCRF and Chairman of the Media Committee, explained: “Oman Camel Racing Federation all set for the event. We are in constant contact with the Royal Camel Corps to ensure the readiness of the race field and all facilities in Barka, also the online camel registration will be accessible from February 20 to 23.”
"As is well known, the race is for purebred Omani camels owned by Omanis only, also forbidden to use doping and electric shocks. We will test random samples from all rounds,” he concluded.
FOUR-DAY COMPETITION
The first day is allocated for ‘Hagayeg’ which is for two-year-old camels (4km), competing in 18 rounds with cash prizes in the morning period.
The afternoon session will see nine rounds with nine cars and two icons as prizes.
The second day competition will be for ‘Lagaya’ category for three-year old camels (5 km), challenging in 17 rounds with seven cars and two icons as prizes. Also, there will be two rounds for ‘Ardah’, a category for human riders for 2 km, with prizes of a car and an icon.
Three categories will be on the third day. ‘Al Ythaa’ for four-year old camels for 5 km with five cars and three icons as prizes for the first five rounds and cash prizes for the rest five rounds.
Two rounds are allocated for ‘Al Ythaa’ five years old for 6km with a car and an icon as rewards. Three rounds will be held in ‘Al Hool’ category (6 years and above for 8 km) with a car and an icon as rewards.
The final day competition includes four main rounds allocated for ‘Al Thanaya’ and ‘Al Hool’ for 8 km. The gold and silver swords will be presented for the winners of the last two rounds with HH Sayyid Faris bin Fatik bin Fahr al Said presiding over as the chief guest.
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