Dubai Duty Free kicks off first Summer SportsFest
Dubai Duty Free COO Ramesh Cidambi and other DDF officials open the first Dubai Duty Free Summer SportsFest
In a bid to promote a healthy lifestyle and celebrate cultural diversity among its growing workforce, Dubai Duty Free’s management and staff gathered for the inaugural Dubai Duty Free Summer SportsFest, which kicked off on August 19 at the Dubai Stars Sportsplex.
The opening ceremony was led by Dubai Duty Free Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Cidambi together with the members of the executive team. They included Salah Tahlak, Executive Vice President – Corporate Services, Bernard Creed, SVP - Finance, Michael Schmidt, SVP - Retail Support and Kumar Ananthan, Vice President – Finance, along with Karim Nizari, Manager - Employee Services and Yousef Al Khalid, Senior Manager - External Affairs & Legal, together with staff members from various concourses and back offices.
The Dubai Duty Free SportsFest is an inter-shift and inter-department competition open to all staff members regardless of skill level. It will run until September 4.
A total of 144 competing squads representing seven teams from Concourse A, Concourse B, Concourse C, Concourse D, Terminal 2, AMIA, Distribution Centre (DC) will vie for the trophies to win in five events: basketball, volleyball (men & women), football, badminton (men & women) and cricket.
The Irish Village was represented by some players and joined T2/AMIA in basketball and DC’s football team.
Commenting on the inaugural SportsFest, Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Colm McLoughlin, said: “I’m happy to see that 900 people have registered for this event. I’m happy that there will be five different sports during the event and I’m happy that seven teams will compete with each other. I want to wish you well because I think that our Sports & Social Committee is a very important thing, it’s been going for more than 30 years. And it’s good that you have a two-week festival going, so I want to wish you all the best.”
All competing teams presented their groups at the parade ceremony, with DC Stallions receiving a special award as the Best Team in Parade Presentation.
Dubai Duty Free formed its Sports & Social Committee in 1986 to encourage an active lifestyle and sporting achievement among its employees. Gradually, a strong base of players has formed who have excelled in major tournaments within the UAE in the fields of basketball, football, bowling, cricket, volleyball and dragon boat.
The retailer is also an active participant of the Dubai Fitness Challenge, which began two years ago, an initiative by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council for Dubai Government.
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