Muscat – Oman has won two world cups in photography for the fifth time in a row at the 40th FIAP Youth Digital Biennial 2022 held in Florence, Italy.

Organised by Federation Internationale de l’Art Photographique, the competition saw 21 countries participating in two categories – Category I for photographers of up to 16 years and Category II for photographers of up to 21 years.

Oman earned 462 points from 20 entries by 13 photographers and won the overall ranking and the U-16 World Cup, ahead of gold medal winner South Africa (428 points), Russia (420 points) and Slovenia (417 points).

The sultanate also emerged the overall winner in the U-21 category after bagging 457 points, ahead of gold medallist Slovenia (430 points), Luxembourg (426 points) and Germany (417 points).

Additionally, Oman bagged three individual prizes. In the U-21 category, photographer Mohammed Sulaiman Nasser al Shaaili won the gold medal for a picture titled Thinking.

Maher bin Naseer al Khusaibi won silver for a photo titled Inflection, and Zamzam bint Khalfan Bani Oraba claimed bronze for her photo Blackout in the U-16 category.

H E Sayyid Saeed bin Sultan al Busaidi, Undersecretary for Culture in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, and head of the sultanate’s delegation that participated in the awards ceremony, said, “The win is testament to the great effort and keenness of our photographers to excel in this competition. Winning the two world cups for five consecutive years confirms the ability of Omani photographers to compete on the global stage and win recognition.”

Lauding the Omani team, the organisers stated, ‘The works presented were of high to very high quality considering the young age. Our photography friends from Oman were too strong for the other countries and won the world cup in both categories. Congratulations to the participants from Oman.’

The Omani team was represented by Photographic Society of Oman, which is affiliated to the Sultan Qaboos Higher Centre for Culture and Science.