Inter-University Sports Festival opens at BITS Pilani Dubai Campus

One of UAE’s largest inter-university sports festivals is well under way at the BITS Pilani Dubai Campus. Popularly known as BSF, the BITS Pilani Sports Festival brings together more than 1,000 students from 23 universities across the seven emirates. Now in its 18th edition, BSF is aiming for new heights with more competitors than ever before.

Universities will be battling it to achieve top spots in sports such as football, cricket, throwball, basketball, volleyball, tennis and athletics along with indoor games such as chess, badminton and table tennis. The BSF trophy is touring around all the universities across UAE, invoking the sense of competition among the participants. The trophy tour was launched by Mohammad Azharuddin, former India cricket captain and current president of Hyderabad Cricket Association. On November 25 at the close of the event, he will be Chief Guest and congratulate all the winners.

Dr M. Rafiuddin, Convener, BSF, said, “The landmark annual event is always much awaited by students not just for goals, points and winning the matches but for the warm camaraderie among the students at the campus. It takes many hands and lots of effort to organise a sporting extravaganza of this magnitude, but at BITS Pilani Dubai Campus (BPDC) this becomes easy as not just our sports department but the entire university works in tandem with the same passion to make this sports fest successful and glorious year after year.”

Prof. Srinivasan Madapusi, Director BPDC, added: “BSF has been a milestone for inter-university sports tournaments throughout UAE. Apart from nationwide appreciation, we have also been felicitated by international sports personalities who have graced the event with their esteemed presence. In addition to recognising that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind, we also want to instill the spirit of sportsmanship and a healthy competitive attitude among the students which are important attributes for all-round development”.

Among the universities taking part in the event are Heriot-Watt, De Montfort University, Amity University, Middlesex University, University of Dubai, Westford University College, Al Ghurair University, City University College of Ajman, Dubai Men’s College, Gulf Medical University, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, Higher College of Technology, United Arab Emirates University, RAK Medical and Health Sciences University, Skyline University College, Manipal University, S.P Jain School of Global Management, SZABIST, Mohd Bin Rashid University of Medicine, Canadian University of Dubai, Success Point University, Victoria University and the University of Sharjah.