Dubai: Thousands of people will be awarded a total of 40kg in gold, worth around Dh6 million, on March 15 in Dubai for winning a weight loss contest. Dubai Municipality will hold the closing ceremony of its “Your Child in Gold” competition at Zabeel Park.

Collectively, the winners shed 40 tonnes of excess weight in the contest, which was held in late 2014.

Notable winners include four people who lost more than 30kg each, a 13-year-old and a 77-year-old contestant.

In the second edition of the contest, children were allowed to take part with their parents and were promised two grams for every kilo lost – double the rate for individual winners.

During the first edition held in 2013, 2,648 winners won 16.823kg of gold in total. That ‘Your Weight in Gold’ contest was won by a young Syrian, who lost 26kg in roughly three weeks, and got gold worth about Dh10,000. Many others walked away with gold worth a total of Dh2.8 million.

This time, more than 27,000 people had initially registered but only 9,000 qualified for the final weigh-in. Of these, some 7,300 were winners because they lost a minimum of two kilos. The majority of the winners lost between two and nine kilos.

Indians make up more than 76 per cent of the winners, while Filipinos make up the second biggest group with 1,423 winners. There are 146 Emirati winners in the health initiative.

Meanwhile, 1,410 people won as participating family members and 7,576 contestants won as individuals.

During the contest, health officials ensured children and adults who wanted to participate were fit to compete. In the launch of the second edition, many families were turned away as their children were not overweight, or even underweight in some cases, a municipality official had said earlier.

Children had to get medical advice from on-site nutritionists to confirm their fitness to participate.

Most participants Gulf News had spoken to during the weigh-ins said winning gold was not their only motivation, adding the contest was an effective means to promote health and fitness.

The first weight checks took place in July 2014 and the last ones took place in September 2014.

The municipality had been offering free medical care from specialists and various sports programmes to assist participants and help them shed weight.