Dubai forum to bring top sportspeople, leaders together

Dubai: The President and Founder of Peace and Sport hopes next week’s forum in Dubai will build on the good start the foundation achieved in its first foreign conference in Russia last year.

Joel Bouzou heads the organisation that was formed in 2007 and aims to use sport to help foster long-lasting peace around the world.

He hailed the discussions that were held last November in the city of Sochi, which will host the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in 2014.

Monaco-based Peace and Sport now heads for the UAE with a forum on April 23-24, to be attended by the likes of IOC Vice President and Olympic gold medallist Nawal Al Mutawakel of Morocco, Kenya’s former World Half Marathon champion Tegla Loroupe and Kenya-born Danish former world 800m gold medallist Wilson Kipketer.

Bouzou, a modern pentathlon Olympic medallist, said of the Sochi conference: “This was a huge success and we were encouraged to look at other cities with a similar vibe.

“For us, Sochi heralded the start of a new, more global era for our organisation. The event was attended by over 800 high-profile opinion leaders from politics, world sport governance and civil society, who showed great motivation and enthusiasm in debates. I am proud and encouraged to see the peace through sport community growing year after year.

“This experience reinforced our commitment to organise future events abroad and it was then that we decided to host the International Forum outside Monaco every second year.”

The Dubai conference, to be held at the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel, will involve discussions around the theme of “Together with sport we build sustainable peace”.

Several key political figures from the Middle East have confirmed their attendance for the two-day event, including Mohammad Tahmi, Algeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports; Sergey Nered, Belarus Deputy Minister for Sports and Tourism; Leon Alfred Opimbat, Minister for Youth and Sports for the Republic of Congo; Mohammad Abbasi, Iran’s Minister of Youth and Sports and Mohammad Ouzzine, Morocco’s Minister of Youth.

Top tennis players Novak Djokovic, Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna, and athletic champions Sergey Bubka, Kipketer, Yelena Isinbayeva, Loroupe, Frankie Fredericks and Dick Fosbury are some of the big names to be given the title “Champions of Peace” by the Peace and Sport Forum.

Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council, is scheduled to formally open the event at 6.30pm on April 23 in the presence of Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Culture.