Media Release
Dubai, Feb 2: ‘SMMC sports fiesta-2025’ an annual sports event organized by St Mary’s Mangalorean Community (SMMC) Dubai belonging to St Mary’s Catholic Church, Dubai was held on Sunday, January 26, at Ajman Royal Grounds, Ajman, among the Konkani speaking Catholic community belonging to all parishes of UAE. This sports event promoted the theme of ‘Sangthaponath Sakath; Ekvotanth Bol’ wherein each team players demonstrated exemplary passion towards their sport and bonding within their team and towards the Konkani community.
It was overwhelming to witness the teams commencing to play at early sunrise on all the Ajman Royal grounds. Further, inaugural ceremony was conducted by the young and energetic MC Vinol Roche and to add to the glitz of the ceremony, spiritual director of SMMC Dubai, Fr Victor Fernandes was the chief guest of the day. All the 29 teams and their players gathered for the ceremony. SMMC core committee member and treasurer Alban Joseph D’Silva conducted the opening prayer, while a beautiful prayer dance was performed by the Konkani community kids Jenisha Maria Mathias and Pearl Pinto.
To celebrate and mark the significance of 76th Indian Republic Day together, all proudly sang the National anthem of India and also that of UAE to demonstrate their love, bonding and patriotism towards the country they reside in and the one they belong to. Further Joseph Mathias, SMMC’s coordinator welcomed the gathering. SMMC core committee members along with Fr Victor Fernandes unveiled a poster of a tree that depicted the union among all the teams and SMMC. The theme was ‘Sangthaponath Sakath; Ekvotanth Bol’. Fr Victor Fernandes addressed the gathering with his inspiring words of building strong friendship and union among the community and displaying a positive spirit of sportsmanship. Vilma Saldanha - sports, cultural and media secretary and SMMC core committee member carried out the oath taking. Further Viyon Robin Veigues, vice coordinator of SMMC closed the ceremony with a thanking note to all who made this event a meaningful one.
A total of 29 teams participated in overarm cricket for men and underarm cricket for women and volleyball for men with great zeal and enthusiasm. it was indeed a great joy to watch and bring together all Konkani speaking Catholics teams play and participate in a friendly and healthy manner but with a highly competitive and sportive spirit. As per the format decided earlier in the presence of the competing teams, initial league matches for cricket (men and women) and volleyball were held simultaneously in three lush green grounds for cricket and in volleyball court.
Below are the Teams and Individuals that emerged as champions of the sports fiesta 2025;
Women’s underarm cricket
a) Winners: Team Spartans Womens
b) Runners-up: Team Sunshine
c) Individual trophies
i) Player of the tournament: Reema Fernandes (Team Spartans)
ii) Best batter: Reema Fernandes (Team Spartans)
iii) Best bowler: Jovita Monteiro (Dxb Kudla)
Men’s overarm cricket
a) Winners: Mangalore Strikers
b) Runners-up: Strikers XI (Merit Freight)
c) Individual trophies
i) Player of the tournament: Ashok Mathias (Mangalore Strikers)
ii) Best batter: Ashok Mathias (Mangalore Strikers)
iii) Best bowler: Prashanth D'Souza (Leyton Shipping AB)
Men’s volleyball
a) Winners: Leyton Shipping Team AB
b) Runners-up: Karavali Milan
c) Individual trophies
i) Best attacker: Stanwil Cyril Sequeira (Karavali Milan)
ii) Best setter: Kevin Kumar Mendonsa (Leyton Shipping Team AB)
Throughout the day, supporters, guests, prominent members of Konkani community visited the venue and were kept engrossed in the spectacular matches between various teams.
Match officials Donald Noronha, Vipin D’Souza, Lesly Saldanha and Noel Almeida, along with their team, took care of umpiring, refereeing, live scoring on cricheroes.com and live commentary of the entire event. Ground facility management was taken care of by Cleevan Lozil Mendonca.
DJ Wilson kept the ambience lively with music flowing throughout the day and Ranjan Studio to Door LLC captured the apt moments of the entire sports event.
Award ceremony was conducted by Uttam Menezes after the conclusion of the finals of all three disciplines. The award presentation ceremony started with the felicitation of the match officials with mementoes followed by honoring all the sponsors, well-wishers. SMMC also expressed their gratitude towards all the participating teams, match officials, umpires, referees, ground management, SMKV volunteers, Konkan Yuva volunteers, JMJ volunteers, medical team, and all those who supported to host this event successfully.
A special thanksgiving was offered to well-wishers and supporters:
Ivory Grand Real Estate LLC, Merit Freight Systems Co. LLC, Leyton Shipping LLC, Resort supplies General Trading LLC, Elegant Star Décor Middle east FZ LLC, Fastlink Clearing & Forwarding
Ideal Loss Adjusters LLC, Max Digital Zone Electronics Trading LLC, Reyzen Gulf International LLC, Cliferd John Building & Construction Materials Trading LLC, Euro Systems LLC, Lumen Tech LLC, Vishal and Family and other well wishers, and media partners Daijiworld.com and NewsKarnataka.com.