UAE: A press conference was held on January 16 at the Darbar Hall, India Club, Oud Metha Road, Dubai on the forthcoming major event ‘Mr. International Indian 2015-16 Bodybuilding Championship’ which will be organised by ‘Team Dubai Indian’/Al Zeal Fitness under the aegis of Emirates Bodybuilding Federation, General Authority of Youth & Sports Welfare, Indian Federation in association with Rhythm Events.
This first ever competition of this kind in Dubai will be held on 29th & 30th January, 2016. The qualifying rounds will take place in an indoor venue to be finalised soon whereas the final rounds will be held on 30th January, 2016 at Al Nasr Leisure land Ice Rink will be from 3 PM onwards.
Shodhan Prasad welcomed the representatives of various Medias and opened up the conference inviting Abdul Karim Mohd. Saeed, Second Vice President of Emirates Bodybuilding Federation (EBBF), Imran Khan, main organiser of Team Dubai Indian & Chief of Al Zeal Fitness Centre, Dubai on to the dais followed by Ravindranath Rai, Afroz Assadi, Yousef Ansari & Shodhan all from the Organising Committee of Team Dubai Indian. Also present in the meet were Chetan Pathar, Vikram Rothe, Varun Srinivasan, Sirajuddin, Asif & Arif Ibrahim along with the Media representatives. Shodhan briefed on the event and distributed the press release stating that this event is a part of the ongoing UAE’s 44th National Day Celebrations.
Later Abdul Karim Mohd. Saeed of EBBF spoke on the event and extended full support to this international event. He disclosed that all the judges for this event are UAE Nationals who are professionals in this field and since this is an event for only Indians; keeping Emirati Judges will otherwise prove to be impartial and will have fair judgement also. He added that this event is not just for this year but will go on every year as a part of UAE’s National Day Celebration Event with more participants. He thanked the organisers for arraning such sportive event in UAE soil and extended full co-operation from EBBF.
Imran Khan thanked Abdul Karim Mohd. Saeed for his full support and mentioned that this was possible only because of the support from the EBBF. This sports event will be a friendly competition with the co-operation of various Federations including EBBF and we will raise the standards of this event, conducting it professionally, he added. Later Ravindranath Rai of Team Dubai Indian clarified few questions of the media on the qualifying criteria.
Big numbers of entries from all over the world have already been registered and confirmation sent to those participants. The event will have the presence of ‘The Great Khali’ of WWF who will be the major attraction and the final event will also have some cultural presentations of UAE-India by various groups. This will add spice and colour to the event as briefed during the press conference.
This is a golden opportunity for those Indian body builders to bag the International Title in overseas soil and will boost the Indian Bodybuilders to challenge themselves for such future similar events.
The conference concluded with vote of thanks followed by refreshments.