MOTORSPORT – The talented Bahraini duo of Carina Abdulrahman Ghuloom and Sahar Darwaa claimed an impressive top 20 finish in the Rally Jameel 2025 – the region’s first women-only off-road navigation rally.
Ghuloom and Darwaa were the kingdom’s representatives in the four-stage challenge, which covered a total of 1,600 kilometres of desert dunes and mountain trails – during which the 41-car field featuring teams from all over the world passed through five cities in two countries, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Rally Jameel has been designed as a competition to test navigation skills, not speed, through travelling on a predefined route between checkpoints where points will be accrued.
This year’s route started from Petra in Jordan, visited Tabuk, Al Ula, and Hail, and ended in the Saudi province of Qassim.
Ghuloom was the driver between the Team Bahrain pairing while Darwaa was the co-driver.
Upon reaching the finish line, they were met by Bahrain Motor Federation (BMF) general manager Abdulaziz Al Thawadi, Ghuloom’s father and BMF official Abdulrahman Ghuloom, and Bahrain’s first-ever Dakar Rally biker Salman Mohamed.
“We did it!” said Ghuloom on social media about completing the race. “It would have not been possible without the support of the BMF and the Bahrain motorsport family.
“An amazing end to the rally was seeing Abdulaziz, my hero (my dad), and Salman at the finish. Truly, our motorsport family in Bahrain is like no other.
“Thank you to Rally Jameel for inviting us for a third year. An amazing event, full of new and old friends. See you again next year.”
Competing in the PT6 class in their Toyota Fortuner, Ghuloom and Darwaa ranked 20th overall with 5,081.126 total points. They finished 247.875 points behind this year’s Rally Jameel winners Reem Al Aboud from Saudi Arabia and Hanna Riehle from Germany, who were atop the standings with 5,329.001 points running in the PT4 category in their Toyota Land Cruiser Prado.
In second overall were Mashael Alhowaish of Saudi and Perry Taye from South Africa in their Lexus RX 500H, scoring 5,261.575 points while contesting the PTH4 class.
The Jordanian tandem of Farah Zakaria and Farah Ayeyyat completed the overall top three, also in a Fortuner, collecting 5,254.297 points. Zakaria and Ayeyyat were the winners of the PT6 class, in which Ghuloom and Darwaa were 12th.
This year’s Rally Jameel marked its fourth edition. Ghuloom and Darwaa finished 43rd overall last year, and in 2023 were ranked 17th. They competed in the PT4 field both times.
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