Dubai Duty Free COO Ramesh Cidambi along with other DDF officials and managers led the opening of the 1st Dubai Duty Free Summer SportsFest.

In a bid to promote healthy lifestyle and celebrate cultural diversity amongst its growing workforce, the Dubai Duty Free management and staff gathered for the inaugural Dubai Duty Free Summer SportsFest which kicked off on 19th August at the Dubai Stars Sportsplex.

The opening ceremony was led by Dubai Duty Free Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Cidambi together with the members of the executive team including Salah Tahlak, Executive Vice President – Corporate Services, Bernard Creed, SVP-Finance, Michael Schmidt, SVP-Retail Support and Kumar Ananthan, Vice President – Finance along with  Karim Nizari, Manager-Employee Services and Yousef Al Khalid, Senior Manager - External Affairs & Legal, together with delighted staff members from various concourses and back offices.

The Dubai Duty Free SportsFest is an inter-shift and inter-department competition opened to all staff members regardless of skill level which will run until 4th September. 

A total of 144 competing squads representing seven (7) teams from Concourse A, Concourse B, Concourse C, Concourse D, Terminal 2, AMIA, Distribution Centre (DC) will vie for the trophies to win in five (5) different sporting events including basketball, volleyball (men & women), football, badminton (men & women) and cricket. The Irish Village was represented by some players and joined T2/AMIA in basketball and DC’s football team. 

Commenting on the inaugural sportsfest, Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Colm McLoughlin said: “I’m happy to see that 900 people have registered for this event, I’m happy that there will be five different sports during the event and I’m happy that 7 teams will compete with each other. I want to wish you well because I think that our Sports & Social Committee is very important thing, its been going for more than 30 years. And its good that you have a two-week festival going, so I want to wish you all the best!”

All competing teams presented their groups at the parade ceremony with DC Stallions receiving a special award as the “Best Team in Parade Presentation.”