JEDDAH: Forty-five college students from the Western Province took part in launching the Saudi local qualification round for the global Red Bull Paper Wings 2009 of paper airplanes at the Red Sea Mall here over the weekend. There was a huge turnout of families and children on the three floors of the mall, the venue of the event. The audience cheered the collegiates as they were folding and making their airplanes with A4 papere.

The students dazzled the arbitration panel, which consisted of Dr. Yasein Al-Melki, deputy of the students affairs deanship, who represented King Abdul Aziz University, Mohammed Al-Hassan, manager of marketing and public relations, who represented College of Business Administration, and Mr. Abdul Hakim Baeshean, a member of and representative of Saudi Aviation Club.

The qualifying students from the Western Province will now take part in the Saudi finals with the Riyadh and Eastern Province winners that will take place in Jeddah toward March-end. The three finalists in each stage of the Saudi qualification round will qualify for the global finals of Red Bull Paper Wings, scheduled in Austria from May 1-2.

The results:

Longest distance — Winners of this category are the ones whose paper airplanes fly to the longest distance between the lift-off and the landing point within the official air space. The holders in this discipline were Abdul Ellah Ismael of King Abdul Aziz University (KAU) with 24.30 m., Omar Al-Attas of College of Business Administration (CBA) 18 m. and Hazem Al-Sobhy of KAU 17 m.

Longest Airtime— Winner of this category is the plane that manages to stay in the air the longest. The holders in this category were Zeyad Al-Meqdadi of KAU with 12 sec., Omar Al-Attas of CBA 8.15 sec. And Hazem Al-Sobhy of KAU 8.12 sec.

Finest flight performance -- The judging panel determined the winners according to following criteria: Construction of the paper plane, flight performance and creativity (plane, outfit, performance). The holders in this discipline were all from KAU -- Mohammad Galal with 27 points, Sulaiman Al-Mansoury 25 points and Owes Al- Maghrabi 23 points. College students in the Central and Eastern provinces can submit their participating forms by either direct registration or by electronic mail [email protected]. They will have the opportunity to participate in the preliminary local qualifications during March at Prince Sultan University and Yamamah University in Riyadh, and King Fahd Coastal City in the Eastern Province.