MUSCAT, MARCH 7
Upon the Royal directives of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, HH Sayyid Harib bin Thuwaini al Said presided over the closing ceremony of His Majesty the Sultan’s Camel Cup Festival 2024 in Barka on Thursday.
The 4-day festival was organised by the Royal Court Affairs at Al Fulaij Racecourse in the Wilayat of Barka.
The final race of the 62-lap competition was won by the Royal Camel Corps’s Makhayil — coached by cameleer Subaih Mohammed al Wahaibi. It also bagged His Majesty the Sultan’s Cup for this year.
HH Sayyid Harib handed over prizes to top winners of the six rounds of the race.
Other RCC camels ‘Fanad’, ‘Amgad’ and ‘Aouan’ also won cups. ‘Motebah’ owned by Al Hejen Bashayer claimed the fifth cup and ‘Takeram’ owned by Sultan al Jahwari grabbed the last icon in the festival. The festival saw the presentation of 27 cars and 18 icons including the Sultan’s cups.
The first day (March 4) of the festival was for the ‘Hagayeg’ category where two-year-old camels competed for 4 km. Sixteen races were held with cash prizes for the top 10. In the afternoon, there were 9 main races with cars for the winner and cash prizes for the top 10.
The second day (March 5) was for the ‘Lagaya’ category for three-year-old camels. The contest was for 5 km divided into 10 races in the morning with cash prize for the top 10. In addition, there were competitions for human riders; three races for 2 km. The winners received an SUV and cash prizes for the top 10. Six main races were in the afternoon with winners getting six cars and cash prizes up to 10th place. The third day (March 6) was for the ‘Yathaa’ category where 4-year-old camels run for 7 km. Three toppers were given cars while four others got cash prizes. On the same day, there were two races for the ‘Thanaya’ category where 5-year-old camels raced for 8 km. In the ‘Al Hawl’ category, 6 year-old camels competed with cash prizes for the top 10.
The concluding ceremony included 6 main races, one race from each category, with qualified camels.
‘Aouan’ owned by RCC, Snatched the first cup and SUV Car, under the trainer Nasser bin Obaid al Darai, while ‘Bashayer’ owned by RCC came second, and ‘Shawaheen,’ owned by Nasser bin Abdullah al Saadi, finished third.
RCC’s ‘Amgad’ won the second cup and the SUV car. It was trained by Hamad bin Salem al Jadaili. Al Ghafiq bin Al Sagheer al Maliki’s ‘Al Ain’ won the second place and RCC’s ‘Dhabiya’ trained by Ali bin Rashid al Omari finished third.
RCC’s ‘Fanad’, which was trained by Hamad bin Salem al Jadaili, grabbed the third cup. ‘Khayal’, owned by Mansour bin Nasser al Lahifi came second followed by Amer bin Saeed al Wahaibi’s ‘Samriya’.
‘Motebah’, owned by Hejen Al Bashayer and trained by Hamid bin Mohammed al Jahafi claimed the fourth cup followed by RCC’s ‘Bailsan’ and ‘Khayal’ owned by Badr bin Hamad al Dara’i
RCC’s ‘Makhayil’ was the champion in the fifth round followed by RCC’s ‘Saayeb’ which was trained by Hamad bin Salem al Jadeli came second, ‘Shawaheen’ owned by Maktoum bin Saad came third.
While in the sixth race for the human rider, ‘Takreem’ owned by Sultan bin Salim al Jahwari, won the icon and the car.
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