Abu Dhabi, UAE, 17 November 2008: The first Adrenaline Sports festival in the Middle East saw thousands of visitors streaming through the doors throughout the weekend along with entry to the Dubai Xgames for one lucky visitor.
With no shortage of activities the whole family were kept entertained at Adrenaline Sports Live, visitors were able to try out many sports for themselves, enjoy live music from some of the regions top performers and witness the inaugural Abu Dhabi National Dragon Boating Cup sponsored by the Shangri-La Qaryat Al Beri.
The festival played host to the very first Arab Am skateboarding championships, qualifying rounds were held throughout Thursday and Friday with the finals on Saturday. Division titles were taken by Maysam Faraj from the Seniors and Mark Gavigan from the juniors. With Faraj winning entry into the next Dubai Xgames and Gavigan awarded a Woodward Camp scholarship.
The RAGE Game of S.K.A.T.E held on Saturday pitted young talent against each other in a one-on-one contest. The rules were simple, one skater performed a trick and the other had to imitate, if the challenger failed they picked up a letter, the first to spell out S.K.A.T.E was knocked out. Colm Noonan had the most tricks up his sleeve and was crowned champion.
Dragon Boat Racing, one of the world's fastest-growing team water sports, was brought to Abu Dhabi for the first time during the festival, with teams competing in three divisions. Winners were Shangri-La 1 in the corporate division; Blue Bay Dragons in the 200m premier class and in the grueling 500m premier class, Dubai Flying Dragons took the gold.
Also on the water; The National Wakeboarding Championships were held throughout the weekend with Michael Declereq winning the Open Junior Category, Barbara Furskog taking the Open Women's and Fabion Hermel first in the Masters Men's.
Another success story of the weekend was the excitement surrounding the land sailing phenomenon, Blokarting brought to the festivals by Dream Days. For the first time in the Middle East the general public were invited to experience the thrills of speeding along in wind powered karts just inches from the ground. As a result of this attention, record number of Blokarts were sold at the festival.
"We spent a long time looking into possible vehicles to launch the Blokarts in the Middle East and when we heard about Adrenaline Sports Live we thought this was ideal. Over the weekend we had well over 100 people having a blast in the karts around the outdoor courtyard and received very positive feedback from all those that tried it out as well as visited our stand. We have got lots of follow up to do now which we are sure will result in a number of sales, overall I am thrilled and am going home a very happy man!" Ash Rawson, International Sales and Marketing Manger, Blokart International
Wrapping up an adrenaline filled Friday, ABRI headlined the MTV Music Stage entertaining crowds with their unique funky-soul sounds.
Running in conjunction with Adrenaline Sports Live was Barbican TURBO, the Middle East's first custom car meet where the world's number 1 drifting team, Team Orange, performed sensational driving and drifting displays for the first time in the region!
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Editor's Notes
Adrenaline Sports Live ran from 13-15 November, and was open to the general public.
Barbican TURBO ran from 13-15 November, and was open to the general public.
Adrenaline Sports Live was organised by CMPi UAE, who are one of the four founding partners of the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company.
For more information, please contact:
Cressida Evans
Marketing Manager
Tel:+971 2 406 4471
Email: cevans@cmpi.biz
Further information on CMPi can be found at www.cmpi.biz
Aimee Murthy
Momentum
Tel: +971 4 390 1630
Email: aimee@momentum.cc
© Press Release 2008
