NAS dominated the ‘Jernaas’ category on Sunday with their bird Tata triumphing in 18.209s and another of their falcons clocking 18.406s in third. Those challengers were split by a NAS R contender (18.388s) in second place and that particular outfit had four qualifiers inside the top 10 positions overall, with three of their other runners coming home fourth, fifth and seventh respectively.

The F3 team once again had strong representation in the 43-strong field, but only one of their 14 falcons made it through to today’s tournament final.

Having prevailed in the ‘Jernaas’ contest, the NAS team could have come away with back-to-back wins had the 18.741s time of one of their birds proved sufficient to succeed in the equivalent ‘Farkh’ competition. However, Biljaflah’s falcon (18.691s) dipped just underneath that prior marker by 0.050s, with Mohammed Al Katbi’s bird (18.782s) back in third spot.