Dubai Schools Games – Par 3 Golf Championship – Emirates Golf Club - video Dailymotion

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00:00We're down here at Emirates Golf Club today to kick off the Live Dubai Schools Games third

00:06edition of this event, which is our Par 3 Golf Championships, an event under the patronage

00:11of the Dubai Sports Council aimed at giving the school children of Dubai more opportunities

00:16to partake in a variety of sports and sports championships throughout the entire year.

00:21They have to be free and they have to be open to every school in the Emirates.

00:26So that's our main aim of the event and looking ahead for a busy nine months.

00:31It's great to see the young kids out here with mum and dad caddying for them, fantastic

00:38great family day out and what we're all about, just promoting sport in the Emirates and who

00:43knows, we could find the next big talent that starts here today at the Emirates Golf Club.

00:48We've got over 220 schools registered on our platform and like I said any school in Dubai

00:53can register and enter our events.

00:57Today for the Par 3 Golf Championships we have over 40 schools partaking, which is fantastic

01:01given that it's the mid-term break, probably keeps the kids occupied one day of the week.

01:06We've got 81 students out here today, both across the primary age groups and the secondary

01:13age groups, so full day of golf.

01:16We are putting on 22 sports throughout the season, this will be the first one obviously

01:21today and we run right through to the end of June, the end of the school year.

01:26So we have a multitude of sports, indoor, outdoor, in person, online, we're covering

01:31all bases, all demographics.

01:34We've got new sports like archery, paddle, cycling, all that we're going to do for the

01:39first time which will be exciting.

01:41Then we have our mainstream sports that the schools love, you've got your football, your

01:44cricket, touch rugby this year, the volleyball, basketball, swimming, it's an amazing event,

01:50over a thousand students registered last year for swimming, so looking forward as we

01:54move throughout the terms, getting more and more kids involved.

01:58Like any great sporting event, can't operate without our sponsors, Live Bank are our title

02:02partner for the year, very proud to have them on board.

02:06Go Sport have been incredible, Kirsten and her team at Go Sport, they're the presenting

02:10partner today for the Par 3 Golf.

02:13My Dubai are our official hydration partner and Asta Clinics are keeping care of their

02:18athletes throughout every event we run, so to all of those sponsors we're very grateful

02:22for.

02:27Well Go Sport got involved for a couple of reasons.

02:30It's a great initiative, that's the main thing, you know, a difficult start with COVID and

02:35the restrictions there, so we were well aware of the plans to build these school games and

02:40flesh that out.

02:42Getting that age group active we felt was an important initiative and Go Sport would

02:47want to be involved in helping support that.

02:51And as a retailer, we are a multi-sport retailer, we're not a single sport retailer, we cover

02:56a lot of sports categories, so for us it ties in very nicely to what we offer, but also

03:01there is a, I think a social responsibility for a retailer like Go Sport to try and promote

03:07activity among a young demographic.

03:13Too often we hear reports that the kids are sitting in front of iPads and screens and

03:18that became worse during COVID.

03:20Now there's an opportunity to get kids more active, we think we'd like to play a part

03:24in that and this is a great initiative to support.

03:28Dubai Schools Games, although it's under the patronage of the Sports Council, it is run

03:31by ESM Sports.

03:33I'm the commercial director there at ESM Sports and we have an event team, ESM Live, made

03:38up of six individuals, so they're out at about every one of our events, running the

03:43events, but more importantly organising it, making sure that planning goes into it beforehand

03:48so we run a seamless event on the day.

03:53This being the third edition, we're really looking to build this year, and then post

03:58this year, how many more sports can we get?

04:01What's the broader reach?

04:02New sports, new participants, new demographics, new age groups, we'd really like to grow this

04:07so it becomes synonymous with school sports in the Emirates.

04:14I guess it's the beauty of Dubai that we have these amazing facilities that we can get out

04:19and about and play these various sports at.

04:21We're here at the Emirates Golf Club today, we'll move off to the Dubai Sports World for

04:26other events, Hamdan Aquatic, we are at the prestigious venues in the city and that's

04:33what our intentions were, to really build on this and make it a high-level sporting

04:37event that the kids can go and compete at venues they might only see on TV or press

04:43etc, but they can actually be there on the stage that their heroes compete on.

04:47So that's a point that we're trying to get across and just lift the profile of the games.

Dubai Schools Games – Par 3 Golf Championship – Emirates Golf Club

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