ABU DHABI — Archery is one of the new additions to the list of shows and competitions at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX), which is on until Saturday at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
Dozens of people of various ages and nationality were keen to give it a try, even if they had never held a bow before in their lives.
“We are actually showing you how it works and give you three arrows just for practice. Then you have five arrows for this level of the competition. The best scorers of each day here at ADIHEX will move on to the final competition at Al Forsan Club on September 24,” explained Noura Deabes, membership manager at Al Forsan.
Abu Dhabi’s latest sport and leisure club opened for the public in Khalifa City in May this year, Al Forsan is among the very first to introduce professional archery to the capital. Its participation in ADIHEX aims at attracting more visitors to its 1,600,000 square meters ‘resort’, which boasts the Middle East’s first cable park for wake boarders and waterskiers.
Another popular competition at ADIHEX this year is the traditional Arabic coffee brew. Several dozen people have already registered for participation, with others just showing up on the spot and asking to take part. “For the first time this year, we have women participants as well,” revealed Saeed Al Kaabi, organiser of the competition on behalf of Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH).
Each evening, competitors gather around a desert sand area within ADACH’s pavilion and begin the roughly 45-minute process of making the Arabic coffee, from roasting the beans over coal fire to manually grinding them and finally brewing the coffee with spices over open fire.
“Usually the elderly are more experienced and that is why we have several categories in the competition, based on age groups. So we encourage the younger generations to keep up the tradition,” Al Kaabi told Khaleej Times.
Every round, though, mixes participants of different ages, so the young may learn some ‘tricks’ from the older men.
Although the competition is open to anyone from any part of the world and organisers provide competitors with tools and coffee beans, only Gulf Arab nationalities have so far entered the competition. — silvia@khaleejtimes.com