The poem, titled “Farewell to Sultan Al-Khair,” composed and recited by Abdullah Nasser Al-Maliki, a student of Talaie Al-Mobdaeen Intermediate School, Taif has bagged first prize in the poetry competition held as part of the Second Makkah Youth Forum.

Hamza Ahmad Al-Kharouji from Abdul Rahman Fakieh Model Secondary Schools, Makkah won first prize in the poetry competition for the secondary schools. A total of 48 qualified boy and girl students from various schools in the Makkah province participated in the final round of the competition.

Expressing delight at winning the prize, Al-Maliki told Arab News that this poem is dedicated to the departed Prince Sultan. “Some figures leave their glory with people even after their death. People still cherish sweet memories of their noble deeds,” he said while lauding the humanitarian qualities of Prince Sultan.

On his part, Al-Kharouji said his prize winning poem, titled “Fragrance and Musk” highlights the significance of good advice as a noble value in the religion of Islam and that of the Arab culture.

“The poem disseminates the message of exchanging good advice among brothers, colleagues, students and teachers. We have to entertain such advice in good spirit and take advantage of it in our life,” he said.

Among the intermediate and secondary girl students, there were no first-prize winners. The judging panel withheld the first prize in the absence of contestants who fulfilled all criteria and required standards. However, Amjad Abdu Ibrahim from Jeddah, Amal Saud Al-Sulami from Kamil, and Rahmat Hassan Al-Maliki from Al-Laith topped other women contestants.

In the final round, solo performances by 48 boys and girls will be staged at the theater of King Fahd Coastal City and the King Faisal Hall of King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. today.

Teams representing school students of Jeddah and Al-Laith, and Taif and Al-Laith will take part in the second round of beach football matches in the coastal city on Monday evening.

In the final round, there are 20 competitions in the fields of culture, education, science, tourism, recreation and sports. These included Qur’an recitation and memorization, poetry, innovation, photography, plastic arts, wall painting, football, basketball, and table tennis, of which the Qur’an competitions held on Saturday. As many as 800 talented boy and girl students are qualified to take part in the month-long final round of competitions. As many as 300,000 intermediate and secondary school students from 11 regions of Makkah Province had participated in the preliminary round of local-level competitions.