JEDDAH, 8 July 2004 — Fans and vacationers greeted “Saudi Eagle” Capt. Ahmed Al-Zahrani with loud cheers as he landed here last evening from Riyadh by flying 1,042 km in four days with four stops, creating a new paramotoring world record.

“This is an achievement I present to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd,” Al-Zahrani, one of Red Bull athletes, remarked after the touchdown at Al-Nawrass roundabout along the Jeddah Corniche.

It was a heroic adventure trip for Al-Zahrani, as he had to encounter strong winds and hot weather conditions all the way. In fact, this caused a delay in his first take off from Riyadh and a consequent delay in his landing in Zolm. A nine-member team accompanied him to give technical support. A TV crew also followed him.

He flew at speeds ranging from 30 to 70 km per hour, at latitude 500 (147m) to 5,000 ft (1,470m), as directed by the Civil Aviation authorities.

The trip from Riyadh to Jeddah took him over a number of cities across the Kingdom to break the world record in paramotoring, he told waiting media representatives. The record was earlier set by Capt. Danni who achieved the fete in Canada after flying almost 1,000 km in six days with nine stops.

Al-Zahrani was given a farewell by a large number of fans who had collected at the starting point of the trip at the Saudi Aviation Club runway in Riyadh on Sunday evening, Bassem El Zein, Red Bull communications manager for Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said.

“This is a pay off for all those who encourage and support paramotoring and other sports in the Kingdom,” Al-Zahrani said. “This was no doubt an exhausting trip, but this is exhilarating as I’ve the satisfaction of giving back to my country what it does for young athletes,” he said and thanked all others including Saudi Aviation Club (SAC) General Manager Captain Ahmad Al-Johani and Saqer Al Jazirah Air Museum Manager Col. Mohammed Al Shahrani.

Al-Zahrani landed in Mouzahimiyah in the evening of the first day after paramotoring 182 km. He stayed there overnight and took off at 4 a.m. His second stop was at Arrouwaydah after covering 170 km. He took off the same afternoon to reach Zolm in the evening after flying a distance of 144 km. At 4 a.m. on Tuesday, he took off from Zolm and headed Al-Mouyah flying 200 km and then toward Taif for another 180 km where he spent the night. He next took off toward Jeddah, his final destination covering 166 km.

Al-Zahrani has been in the world paramotoring sport for a long time, but became a known athlete only in 2000. He was ranked number six out of 152 participants in Paramotoring Championship in Birmingham in 2003. He was also ranked number two in Europe Championship held in Hungary in 2002 and took part in many shows and festivals around the world.

SAC is to mark the inauguration of its first training school “very soon,” especially as paramotoring is generating a lot of interest in the Kingdom. Successful trainees will obtain licenses from the club under the supervision of a dedicated team from the Federation Internationale Aeronautique-FIA. Thirty Saudis are reported to be practicing paramotoring.