Second edition of Gov Games to be held in April 2019
Second edition will see teams from government departments compete
Dubai: The second edition of the Gov Games will return to Dubai from April 3 to 6, 2019, officials announced on Wednesday.
Gov Games is an initiative of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council.
Comprising teams from various Dubai government departments, other emirates and the UAE federal government, as well as significantly more international participants from major cities across different continents, the expanded Gov Games 2019 is a collaboration between the General Secretariat of the Dubai Executive Council and Dubai Sports Council.
The competition will once again be held under the theme of ‘One Team, One Spirit’ to highlight the teamwork needed to achieve excellence in the professional and sporting arenas. The theme also reflects the significant progress made by the Government of Dubai in recent years, to encourage citizens and residents to pursue active lifestyles through a series of programmes.
Competitors at the event will face similar challenges to those featured in the inaugural Gov Games in 2018, while a new set of testing obstacles will require greater harmony and focus from participating teams. Team members will have to work together and demonstrate key characteristics such as strength, stamina, memory, diving and climbing, to compete efficiently and effectively.
Gov Games 2019 is once again open to the public, to view the mental prowess and physical endurance of government employees being tested in a gruelling series of preliminary qualifiers and finals, on an intense obstacle course.
The first Gov Games was won by Shaikh Hamdan and his victorious F3 team following a comeback in a close final, where all but one obstacle was successfully completed. Shaikh Hamdan lead his F3 team back to the obstacle the day after the event, determined to conquer it.
The women’s competition was won by the US Consulate General in Dubai team. Both teams donated their shares of the Dh1 million cash prize to charities in the UAE.
The first edition of the Gov Games was attended by 154 teams representing more than 96 international and local government departments from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, and made up of 90 men’s teams and 64 women’s teams.
“The inaugural Gov Games was a tremendous success and served its purpose in testing the mental agility, fitness and teamwork of UAE government employees, and their peers from around the world,” said Marwan Bin Eisa, Director of the Gov Games.
“Despite this success and the overwhelmingly positive feedback — which stretched from all over the world — we believe there is ample scope to increase the Gov Games footprint and the legacy of this Dubai initiative to every corner of the globe under the directives and unlimited support of [Shaikh Hamdan].”
Bin Eisa added the 2019 edition will again feature separate competitions for all-female and all-male teams, with champions from each gender claiming shares of Dh1 million in prize money.