JEDDAH: The second stage of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) Qur’an and Athan Global Awards has been launched, and will see the shortlisting of 42,000 applicants registered so far. Earlier, the GEA announced that it has allocated a total prize fund of $3.2 million for what it called the largest Qur’an competition and the first Athan competition. The first stage finished on Aug. 18, and now the second stage will see the shortlisting of the registered applicants, participating from 162 countries. 24,766 competitors registered for the Qur’an recitation competition and 17,347 for the Athan competition. In the Qur’an competition, Saudi Arabia topped the list with 9,082 applicants, while Egypt came in second with 5,184, followed by Pakistan with 1,822, Indonesia with 1,801, and India with 1,225. The remaining applicants came from a total of 157 countries.FASTFACT The winner of the Qur’an recitation competition will receive a prize of $1.3 million, while the winner of the Athan competition will receive $530,000. The same five countries maintained their rankings in the Athan competition, which received 7,167 participants from Saudi Arabia, 2,872 from Egypt, 2,193 from Pakistan, 1,064 from Indonesia, and 956 from India, with the remaining also covering 157 countries. The third stage involves live on-stage performances. The winner of the Qur’an Recitation competition will receive a prize of $1.3 million, while the winner of the Athan competition will receive a prize of $530,000.