Dubai: The Zayed Abbas Tennis Academy (Zata) team will take on Padel Pro 1 team in the teams padel competition to get the second activity under way as part of the 5th Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Sports Tournament.
The annual tournament kick-started at the NAS Sports Complex late on Sunday with the first two preliminary round matches of the volleyball competition late on Sunday.
Held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Sports Council (DSC), the padel competition is the second of nine sporting disciplines that are being held this year with teams vying for a total prize fund of more than Dh6 million.
This year there is also the addition of three new sporting disciplines, namely fencing, a fitness challenge and football for the deaf along with the other competitions for padel, volleyball, futsal, wheelchair basketball, road runs and road cycling.
Held under the theme “Unlimited Capabilities”, the NAS Sports Tournament is one of the richest organised during the month of Ramadan in the UAE with the Futsal competition alone having an allocation of Dh2.31 million.
The padel will be held in an open category, a teams category and a special competition for UAE nationals. The finals in all three categories will be held on June 13 and 14.
“We are always keen in taking this tournament to the next level, and it is with this intention that we have added three new disciplines such as Fencing, NAS Challenge and Football for the Deaf this year. So this year we will have competitions in nine sporting disciplines compared to six disciplines last year,” noted Salah Amin, Board Member, DSC and Deputy Chairman, Organising Committee and Head of Technical Committee for the tournament.
Hassan Al Marzouqi, the Tournament Director stressed that the main goal of the tournament is to support and encourage youths while also backing important projects through the “tents of charity”. “This is an event that is meant for all sections of society and we encourage people to come and support their teams at the NAS Sports Complex,” Al Marzouqi said.
“Each year this tournament has been adding something new and this year we have three new sporting disciplines that we hope will give this event an added impetus,” he added.
