Sports, games, health and fitness, combined with a dash of competitive visual arts, marked the day-long events on the Masdar Institute Health and Sports Day 2016, held on 19 April at the Masdar Institute campus.
Inaugurated by Rabia Bekhazi, Director, Student Affairs Office, more than 100 Masdar Institute staff, students and faculty gathered at the Multi-Use Hall for a day of exciting sports and fitness activities as well as the ‘Spirit of Masdar’ photography competition.
The day featured a number of sports competitions open to faculty, students and staff, including badminton, basketball, squash, table tennis and foosball.
In the badminton competition, Shahid Rabbani and Abdul Mannan Rauf took the first place, and Sanyo John and Vinay were runners-up. Imran Syed and Zakariyah Shoroye shared the top honors in table tennis, followed by Ganesh Pandey and Faisal Hameed. Rupesh Karn and Prajowal Manandhar proved their abilities to win first place against Armin Alibasic and Ahmed Elian in foosball, while Mohammed Khan beat Owais Talat to win the coveted top slot in squash.
First place in the 3×3 basketball tournament was shared by Mauricio Paton, Amalfi Yusri, and Maksymilian Klimontowicz, while Juan Barbosa, Alexandros Tsoupos, Stelain Curceac, Sokratis Papadopoulos were the runners up.
All sports contest winners and the runners-up were awarded with entry passes to Yas Waterworld and Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.
Sports Day also featured an annual photography contest organized by the the Masdar Institute Photography Club. This year the contest was on the theme ‘Spirit of Masdar’ and featured three categories – members of Photography Club, all other students, and Masdar Institute faculty/staff. Images in portraiture, architecture, festival, night photography, landscape, daily life, and nature were accepted for the contest. After the entries were shortlisted by a panel of judges, day-long voting by the Masdar Institute community took place at the Sports Day to decide the final winners.
Juliana Beltran Torres won the Photography Club category, while Luca Mazzoni took the first spot in the ‘Student’ category. Dr Nicolas Calvet won the ‘Staff/Faculty’ category.
The day’s activities were led by Jamal Al Shaikh, Sports Specialist, the Student Affairs Office team, and Saeed Kaddoura, Student Sports Chair. They were ably supported by the Sports Committee members Kevin Garvey, Sokratis Papadopoulos, Arslan Anjum, Asif Soopee, and Mouza Al Kaabi. The event was sponsored by Yas Waterworld, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Daman, Al Manara Pharmacy, and Spinneys.
Free health checks by Daman Insurance assessed blood pressure, body composition analysis, and diabetes risk assessment, while a team from STAY FIT was on hand to give free personal training tips and discuss the type of fitness programs that could be organized on campus at Masdar Institute. The Masdar City Al Manara Pharmacy team was on hand to offer free sample of products relating to sports and health and beauty.
Clarence Michael
News Writer
28 April 2016
