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UAE: 27 teams from around the world participate for the first time in Gov Games

Four teams make it to the final Battle of the Battles round on March 5

The excitement was real and the adrenaline was palpable. Participants from 27 cities from around the world took part in the Gov Games 2023. They used every ounce of physical capabilities and mental fortitude to go through seven obstacle courses, and in the end, four of them made it to the final Battle of the Battles round on March 5 – Kutna Hora, Copenhagen, Brisbane and Gdansk.

The Battle of the Cities, held for the first time ever, kicked of the Gov Games 2023 on Thursday. On the first day of the 4-day event, the teams simultaneously moved from one obstacle course to the other. They only had 10 minutes to complete each course.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Marwan bin Essa director of Gov Games said that an invitation was sent to cities that expressed their interest in the past and who wanted to take part. “They were all selected by their ministries of sport and the mayors from their respective countries,” he said, adding that every city sent “the best of the best” to participate in Gov Games 2023

“We sent a pre-invitation in 2020. We invited them to take part then, but unfortunately, it wasn’t held because of the pandemic so we resent it to them to take part this year,” he explained. These specific cities had heard about Gov Games since 2018 and they expressed their interest to be part of it, he explained.

Marwan said that the number of participating cities will probably increase in the upcoming editions of Gov Games. Ahead of the games, he said that it was hard to predict who will win but that all participating teams are strong. “Let’s see their team spirit. Gov Games are all about teamwork,” he said.

This year's event had participants from Brisbane, Nairobi, London, Leeds, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Florence, Dublin, Lisbon, Sao Paolo, Bangkok, Al Rifaa, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Gdansk, Paris, Marseille, Barcelona, Nashville, Pilani, Tashkent, Ajman, Dubai, Gdansk, Kutna Hora, San Diego and Colorado.

Bruno Silvano one of the team members representing Lisbon, Portugal said that they loved the team spirit and that this year’s challenges were different from the ones they saw in the videos of the previous editions. “In the past, we noticed that much strength was required to complete the obstacles but this year it was about challenges that depend on body weight – calisthenics. We really enjoyed ourselves,” he said.

From Florence Italy, Giancarlo Guidarelli said they didn’t know what to expect and so they started off curious about the obstacles. “But gradually we started to really enjoy ourselves. It was a crescendo of emotions. We felt that some of them were very difficult and that we did well in the ones that required team work,” he said, adding that they worked well as a team even though they came from different sport backgrounds: triathlons, rugby and judo.

All the way from Brisbane, Australia, Fred Dorrington said that the energy in the arena was great. “We could really feel the support of the everyone and we felt very welcomed. We never did this before so as a team it was great to experience it,” he said. All members of the team train together in cross fit a gym and get along really well. “We found some parts more challenging and others easier. It was a balancing act between applying what we know and challenging ourselves with new things,” he added.

Martin Micheleus from Frankfurt, Germany, said that their team consisted of four women and two men. “I think you really have to work as a team and not an individual athlete. The obstacles were challenging,” he said adding that they didn’t train together in the past and so the challenge was to work together as a team.

Gov Games, now in its fourth edition, was launched in 2018 by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. It features a series of physical and mental challenges designed to reinforce team spirit and collaboration.

This year the competition will take place in Dubai Design District till March 5. In addition to the Battle of the Cities category Gov Games will also witness the participation of 82 male teams and 27 female teams in the category of Government entities, 28 teams in the Communities category and 27 international teams in the newly introduced Battle of the Cities category. Three winning teams from each of the four categories will be announced.