Duhok’s Mount Zawa hosts paragliding competition

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Eighty-five athletes from across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are competing in a parachuting championship on Mount Zawa in Duhok, where 13-year-old Rojin Farid from Halabja stands out as the youngest and only female competitor.

“I've been involved in this sport since I was eight years old. My father is a coach of this sport. One day I told my father that I like this sport too, and he said okay. Every day, with the support of my father and mother, we practiced. God willing, I will achieve first place,” said Farid.

Over the four-day championship, each competitor will complete four jumps from the mountain’s peak to its base.

“According to the conditions, they must fly from Mount Zawa at a height of 250 to 300 meters, come here and hit the zero point to be selected as an Iraqi athlete,” Ahmed Ramadan, a supervisor of the championship, told Rudaw on Friday. 

The goal is to land as close as possible to a marked point, with higher accuracy earning higher scores. Top scorers will advance to the next stage of the competition.