Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
The Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Ben Guerir organized on Saturday its first national competition in individual sports in collaboration with the Royal Moroccan Federation for University Sports (FRMSU).
Over 170 students participated in the competition, representing fifteen universities across Morocco. The sports included swimming, tennis, chess, billiards, ping pong, and badminton.
The organization of the event came as an opportunity for UM6P to showcase its sporting infrastructure and share its vision on prioritizing sports, which contribute to students’ integration and socialization, according to El Mostafa El Madkouri, Head of the Sport Department at the university.
Students were able to socialize with their peers during the event.
Othman Bih, Technical Director at the FRMSU, told Morocco World News (MWN) that the national technical committee as well as the royal federation’s executive office are also thinking of proposing an international university championship at UM6P’s Ben Guerir campus.
For the participants, the event was a chance to showcase their talents, socialize with people, and add some experience under their belts.
Fadwa Fidadi, a participant in the swimming competition, sees sports as “a means of developing the social network, the soft skills, maintaining health, and integrating into society.”
The event also served as a showcase of talented students’ abilities.
As a solution to save the lives of the young generation from growing issues such as drug addiction, Fidadi stated that Moroccan officials “should consider opening more areas of entertainment, balance between studies and sports, and exterminate drugs.”
For Ikram Morchid, a participant from the chess competition, the event was “an opportunity to know other people and other sports, and to represent my university.”
Favoring real interactions with people over virtual ones, Morchid argued that youth nowadays “are very concerned about the life of others on social media and forgetting their own.”
“They need to participate, discover themselves and other people, be in groups, and try to take up sports, especially collective ones,” she added.
Organizers are also thinking about establishing an international competition at the UM6P campus.
Being short of open spaces is what leads youth to go down bad paths sometimes, as Morchid said that the government should “give more attention to sports by opening more places for the youth because there are no playgrounds in many universities.”
“This makes it difficult for students to participate in such competitions,” she detailed.
As a piece of advice to other young people who are trailing behind in athletics, Morchid suggested that they immediately consider taking care of their physical and mental health.
Sports do not only imply physical movements, she said, but they help to develop oneself and expand one’s network, describing chess as “good” for decision making and building personal responsibility.
Read also: Marrakech to Host Morocco’s First Ever International Robotics Competition
