Dubai: How these young athletes practiced at 6am to beat peak summer heat for an all-women sports tournament

The Sevens Stadium in Dubai hosted the second annual SAXO 7s on Saturday, featuring an all-women and girls' netball and rugby tournament, held concurrently with TribFest, a tribute music festival.

The event provided a platform for female athletes in the region to showcase their skills, engage in friendly competition, and promote gender equality in sports.

Former England Netball Captain, Pamela Cookey, flew in from the UK for the event. She assisted with netball training sessions and cheered on the girls throughout the all-day event.

Pamela also took time to sign autographs and take pictures with fans. "The fact that you have so many girls playing — you don't get that opportunity a lot, so for SAXO to put this on and the whole netball community to invest in it has been great," Cookey said. She advised netball enthusiasts to enjoy the game, saying, "I always played my best netball when I was having fun and smiling."

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The netball tournament included five teams from Dubai, one each from Al Ain and Sharjah, and two visiting teams from the UK. The Dubai Hurricanes netball team said they had been training at The Sevens Stadium for two months ahead of the event, as early as 6 in the morning to beat the summer heat.

The rugby tournament saw the participation of twelve teams from across the country, and Dubai Hurricanes emerged as the winners. The rugby tournament director, Shirley, whose own daughter took part in the event, praised the community spirit among the athletes and the social opportunities the sport offers young women. Shirley said she was glad her daughter has ‘older women' to look up to and watch them play to see the skills and see where she will be in a few years.

Nakheel set up stalls for hair-braiding and glitter painting, allowing all attendees to join in and embrace the spirit of the day.

The event's master of ceremonies, Katie Overy, remarked, "I just love seeing women and girls playing sports," as she didn't witness many women or girls participating in rugby during her own upbringing.

Also present on the day were representatives of SAXO Bank, including Tara Tyan, head of marketing, and Nicholas Wright, regional head of institutional business for MENA. Tara explained, “We’re not a traditional retail bank. We’re an investment bank, and our purpose is to empower people, especially women, to take care of their financial future. Sports has traditionally been very male-dominated, so we see an opportunity for women to flourish in this space and empower women at every stage of their lives.”

citypulse@khaleejtimes.com

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