The grand finale of the two-day third Drone Racing League (DRL) Allianz World Championship was hosted by King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) in Jeddah on Friday, 04^th Muharram 1440H (14^th September 2018). The DRL Allianz World Championship was organized by the Saudi Federation for Cyber Security and Programming and Drones (SAFCSP). During the seventh and final race, and amidst a large crowd of the Drones’ fans, a group of the world’s greatest and most professional drone pilots competed to be crowned world champion across three stages.

During the event, the attendees enjoyed folkloric performances by the Popular Folk Band representing the various regions of the Kingdom.

At the end of the Championship, Nouf Al-Rakan, Executive Director of SAFCSP, crowned the top winners in the presence of DRL CEO and Founder, Nicholas Horbaczewski.

On the other hand, and within the global event, a drones’ race was organized for Saudi Nationals only on Thursday, 03^rd Muharram 1440H. It resulted in crowning racers Mubarak Al-Jameely, Muhammad Al-Duraiweesh, Moataz Al-Jaafary and Abdulhady Azzouz as numbers one, two, three and four respectively. It is worth mentioning that the participation in such national competition by the Saudi drones’ fans beside 16 Saudi students who were interested in the drones technology followed their attendance at a training workshop on Wednesday. The workshop was on building, programming and flying drones, and was supervised by the DRL World Team. The participants used simulation software to learn how to control the aircraft and then got to fly the latest, state-of-the-art Racer 3 drones.

On the same occasion, and in conjunction with the Kingdom’s hosting of the DRL Allianz World Championship, a two-day training program was organized to include training courses and workshops for drones’ fans on 12^th-14^th September 2018. The program was held at the World Academy in KAEC in Northern Jeddah, which was specialized in manufacturing drones and dealing with their control tool.  In addition, the courses and workshops were managed by a specialized training team of the most prominent engineers and programmers for the drones used in the final race of the DRL Allianz World Championship. In other words, they shed light on drone races as one of the modern sports with the help of 4 international instructors and trainers: Gabriel Kocher (PhD in Materials and Physics), Nick Willard (Aerospace Engineering Graduate), Paul Nurkkala (He contributed to the teaching of DRL materials more than any other pilot) and Jordan Temkin (won the last two Drone Racing League‘s championship series). Besides, they spoke about the future vision of the sport and the role it played to change the concepts of traditional races. 

In the same context, the workshops comprised a detailed explanation of the building, installation and programming mechanisms and methods for a drone prototype, as well as the way to use the autopilot to follow the movement of the drones in the field.

It is worth mentioning that the Kingdom's hosting of such exceptional event is regarded as an opportunity to attract citizens to a new type of sport. It also provides a proper environment for young people of all ages to be creative and excellent in the domains of sport and technology alike.