Sports
Dubai Sports Council will honour the COVID-19 frontline workers with these medals. Image Credit: Supplied picture

Dubai: The Dubai Sports Council will honour heroes who were at the frontline of Dubai’s fight against COVID-19 by issuing commemorative medals that celebrates their efforts to contain the pandemic.

The medals, which will be given to the winners of upcoming sports events in Dubai, pays homage to the service of Dubai Police and Dubai Civil Defence through the COVID-19 crisis, alongside the staff of Dubai Health Authority, and the First Responders of Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services. Together, they were at the forefront of Dubai’s fight to contain the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic alongside volunteers from different segments of Dubai’s diverse community.

The new medals are an extension of Dubai Sports Council’s initiative to celebrate not just Dubai’s iconic landmarks, but the emirates’ heroes as well and immortalise their story. In the past, DSC’s medals have featured some of the most famous cultural and tourist landmarks of Dubai like the majestic Dubai Frame and Burj Khalifa, the magnificent Museum of the Future and the stunning Mohammed Bin Rashid Library, alongside Hamdan Sports Complex, Tolerance Bridge and the Al Marmoom Conservation Reserve.

The first of the new medals will be distributed at marine sports competitions that will be taking place this weekend.

Sports competitions resumed in the emirate of Dubai last Friday with the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club’s Summer Series, which featured paddle boats, dinghy boats and yachts. This weekend, Dubai International Marine Club, in cooperation with Dubai Sports Council, has organised a “Dubai Watersports Summer Week” that will see different competitions take place at various venues from June 25-27.

The event will open with a Motosurf competition on Thursday evening, first of its kind taking place in Dubai and the event will be followed by Hydrofly (Flyboard) competition, which will see participants perform amazing stunts in the air.

Come Friday, fans of marine sports will witness a full day of competition at different venues. Two of the three events planned for the day – Kayak Fishing and Stand Up paddling – will be taking place for the first time in Dubai.

There will be a modern sailing competition for Laser 4.7 and Optimist on June 27, which is being organised in cooperation with Dubai Offshore Sailing Club.

The decision to resume marine sports competitions is part of a series of decisions taken by Dubai Sports Council in recent days to gradually reopen the sports sector following weeks of closure due to COVID-19. The decision is in line with the Government of Dubai’s plan to open all sectors of life in the Emirate, and complies with instructions issued by Dubai’s Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management.

The winter sports sector in Dubai will be the next to reopen for competitions with a “Freestyle Ski and Snowboard Competition - Slopestyle and Big Air”, which is being organised by Ski Dubai in cooperation with Dubai Sports Council. The event is scheduled for July 31 at Ski Dubai, Mall of the Emirates.