Two New Heats Join Ghayathi Falcon Competition Lineup
Ghayathi Falcon Competition Adds Heats
The Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX), working with the Abu Dhabi Falconers Club, has added two dedicated heats to the Ghayathi Falcon Competition. The move gives badge-holding falcons a further route into competition beyond the President's Cup Championship heats already reserved for them.
The new heats split into two categories, each named for the falcon breeds and colour types eligible to enter: a Gyr Shaheen and Gyr Tabaa heat, and a Gyr Pure and Gyr Qarmousha heat. Falcons bought at ADIHEX, or at its associated auctions, become eligible for the ADIHEX Badge and, once they meet requirements approved by the relevant committees, may enter these heats. ADIHEX 2026, the 23rd edition of the exhibition, runs from 28 August to 6 September 2026 at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler's Representative in Al Dhafra Region.
A falcon carrying the ADIHEX Badge already qualifies for the President's Cup Falconry Competition for the 2026-2027 season, and the Ghayathi heats now extend that same qualification pathway into a second event.
The Ghayathi Falconry Competition itself is held in Ghayathi, in the Al Dhafra region, also under Sheikh Hamdan's patronage and organised in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Falconers Club. Past editions have run under the Office of the Ruler's Representative in Al Dhafra Region, and the festival has become a fixture on the club's season calendar alongside events such as the Dhafra Falconry Festival.
New Heats Widen The Pathway
The ADIHEX Badge scheme has expanded quickly since its introduction. It launched across four falcon categories, Gyr Pure, Gyr Qarmousha, Gyr Shaheen and Taba, under the President's Cup Falcon Competition for the 2024-2025 season, giving buyers at ADIHEX auctions a defined route into elite competition rather than treating a purchase as an end in itself.
The scale of the auction side underlines why the badge matters to buyers. In the 2025 cycle, 270 falcons received the ADIHEX Badge, with total auction sales exceeding US$2.5 million (AED9,200,000) across the event. For 2026, organisers have set up eight falcon auctions in total, four before the exhibition and four during it, with 55 falcon farms taking part, a 20% increase on the previous year. That increase in participating farms builds on the auction's already sizeable footprint, adding to the roster of breeders and sellers bringing birds into the ADIHEX Badge system alongside the hundreds already recognised in the 2025 cycle.
Auction Growth Feeds The Competition
That growth in supply feeds directly into the competition side. More badge-eligible falcons passing through the auctions means more birds competing for places once qualification requirements are met, which is part of the rationale behind adding heats rather than leaving the President's Cup rounds as the sole outlet for badge holders. The new Ghayathi heats sit alongside those existing rounds, giving badge holders a second recognised stage within the same season.
Organisers frame the new heats as part of a broader push to diversify competition opportunities for what they describe as an elite group of falcons and falconers, while continuing to support championships tied to UAE heritage. The Ghayathi event has long served that role, bringing together falconers and enthusiasts around a traditional sport with deep roots in the Al Dhafra region.
The joint coordination between ADIHEX and the Abu Dhabi Falconers Club is aimed at running the championship to a high technical and logistical standard, with the stated goal of lifting the overall level of competition and pushing participants toward their best performances.
Falconry's competitive calendar in the UAE has grown steadily in recent seasons, with the Abu Dhabi Falconers Club listing nine championships for the 2025-2026 season alone, including the Ghayathi Falconry competition and the Dhafra Falconry Festival, held in early January 2026. The addition of ADIHEX-linked heats at Ghayathi adds another layer to that calendar, connecting the auction ring at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi to grassroots and regional competition further west in Al Dhafra.
For falconers, the practical effect is a wider set of chances to put a badge-holding bird to competitive use across a single season, rather than waiting solely on the President's Cup rounds. For the sport more broadly, organisers position the step as reinforcing efforts to preserve falconry as a living tradition, with the exhibition and its auctions acting as a feeder system into events such as Ghayathi that carry direct ties to the region's heritage. With 55 farms now supplying the auctions and 270 falcons badged in the most recent cycle alone, the new heats give that growing pool of qualifying birds a wider set of stages to compete on through the season.