Players of Brighton College celebrate during the presentation ceremony.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Family, friends, and spectators flocked to Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium on Sunday to witness impressive displays of rising football talent, teamwork, and sportsmanship at the inaugural ADEK Sports Cup finals.

Following two action-packed final matches for the girls’ and boys’ teams, Brighton College were crowned girl’s champions following a strongly contested final against The British School - Al Khubairat (BSAK), while International School of Choueifat – Abu Dhabi came out on top against Repton School Abu Dhabi in the boys’ final.

The matches were attended by a number of Abu Dhabi government officials and dignitaries, including Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, Department of Community Development Chairman; Sara Musallam, ADEK Chairman; Amer Al Hammadi, ADEK Undersecretary; Homaid Al Shimmari, Deputy Group CEO and Chief Corporate and Human Capital Officer in Mubadala Investment Company; and Ali Al Hammadi, Al Jazira Chief Executive Officer showcasing Abu Dhabi’s and ADEK’s commitment to encouraging healthy and active lifestyles among students and the wider community.

“We have seen promising sporting talents displaying true sportsmanship,” said Sara Musallam.

“We are delighted with the success of the first ADEK Sports Cup and would like to congratulate all the participating teams who have shown great dedication throughout the qualifiers and the final stages – and of course a special mention for our first-place winners. Our thanks go to Abu Dhabi Cricket and Al Jazira Club for their support throughout the tournament, and their generous hosting of the qualifiers and finals matches respectively.”

International School of Choueifat – Abu Dhabi players celebrate after winning the final.

“We launched the ADEK Sports Cup to accelerate students’ return to a healthy and active lifestyle and provide a platform to instil a culture of wellbeing and inspire a continued passion of sports among upcoming talents. We are certain that such activities will have a positive impact on students’ psychological, physical, and social well-being, hence improving their academic performance. On the other hand, the enthusiasm and excitement we have seen from the schools throughout the tournament reinforces our determination to expand this initiative to other sports in future editions,” she added.

After a closely contested 0 - 0 opening half in the girl’s game, Brighton snuck two skilful goals past the BSAK defence to be the very first team to be crowned ADEK Sports Cup Champion following a 2 – 0 result.  For the boy’s final it was the International School of Choueifat – Abu Dhabi whose attack was on top form netting five impressive goals against the talented Repton team for a 5 – 0 result.

Following the matches, ADEK held an awards ceremony to present the winning teams with the ADEK Sports Cup trophy. Dr. Mugheer and Sara Musallam presented the cup to the winners and awarded the gold, silver, and bronze medals to all the players of the first, second and third place holders, in both the boys and girls categories.

While the inaugural edition of the ADEK Sports Cup featured more than 50 male and female teams competing across more than 100 football matches, future editions will expand into additional sports, with the goal of attracting the largest number of students to play the sports they love in a safe, fun, and friendly competition.