Prizes Abound at Movenpick Games
By NY Staff
The Mövenpick Ramadan Athletic Competition concluded last week with the awarding of numerous prizes to skilled contenders in four different athletic events. Competitors participated in 244 different rounds of basketball, tennis, squash and ping pong matches. Participants were awarded with 17 trophies, 124 medals, 7 plane tickets and more than 50 gifts from Yemeni businesses, including the Mövenpick itself.
This is the second year that the Mövenpick has held this athletic event, and the organizers have expressed interest in continuing to expand the scope of the competition in the future. This year, event was held in part to support the National Dialogue Conference, whose meetings are also held at the Mövenpick.
Next year’s competition is planned to include competitions in seven athletic events compared to this year’s four. In following years, the hotel hopes to expand the event to 10 different athletic events, expanding participation, and renaming the event the Mövenpick Olympiad.
“The idea is to change the idea of hotel service,” said Mohammed al-Nunu, organizer of the competition. “We want to add something to the hotel business.”
The event was organized by the hotel itself with the assistance of Sana’a’s football, tennis, and basketball unions. The event is also proud to cooperate with Yemen’s special needs community; this year an exciting basketball match between two special needs teams resulted in a Turkish Airlines ticket awarded to the winning team.
“The most exciting matches of the event were the basketball and squash championships,” said al-Nunu. The final squash match was won by Arhab al-Serhy, while the Mövenpick team managed to defeat the Sabaphone team to claim the basketball championship.
