UAE hosts ninth Sabis regional tournament

Dubai: More than 1,000 schoolchildren from the Middle East and beyond took part in the ninth running of the Sabis Regional Sports Tournament, which was held at the International Schools of Choueifat (ISC) in Dubai and Sharjah last weekend.

Some 23 schools from 12 countries — including Germany, Romania, Pakistan and many from this region — were represented in the two-day event, which saw youngsters participating in football, basketball, athletics and swimming competitions.

The ISC team from Cairo took home the most medals with a total of 17, while Amman and Germany won 12 medals each. Choueifat Lebanon were next with six, ahead of Al Ain and Doha on five, with the remaining 27 medals shared among the other schools. Highlights including ISC Erbil (from Iraq) winning the finals of both the under-10s football tournament against Cairo and under-14s against Dubai.

The final event was a spectacular under-18s boys’ basketball match that saw Lebanon get the better of ISC Dubai.

The results included an impressive 11 new records, with new marks set in the girls’ sprint relay (ISC Amman), boys’ sprint relay (ISC Cairo), individual sprints (Choueifat Lebanon, ISC Cairo and ISC Amman) and swimming (ISC Al Ain, ISC Amman and ISC Cairo).

The opening ceremony was attended by Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is an alumnus of ISC Dubai, while Dubai-based former Real Madrid player Michel Salgado began the football tournament by making the first pass.

Sabis/Choueifat is a global school network that educates more than 60,000 students in 15 countries over four continents. Sabis vice-president Victor Saad attended the UAE event and congratulated all the participants, coaches and referees for the “team spirit, sportsmanship and mutual respect that dominated the games”.

Saad added that the next running of the tournament would be in Lebanon in 2015.