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Rabat – Dakhla in southern Morocco won the Euro-Mediterranean City of Sport award 2019 at the European Parliament in Brussels, on Tuesday, December 10. The award comes in recognition of Morocco’s efforts to develop the southern city, particularly through the promotion of sports.
Dakhla is the first city in Morocco to receive the Euro-Mediterranean City of Sport award, says ACES Europe.
In recent years, development in Dakhla has led to the city being seen as a prominent sporting destination. Sports associations, clubs, and local authorities have worked to improve the city’s infrastructure while implementing policies and programs to promote sports host large-scale events.
Dakhla has organized several major sporting events such as the African Kiteboarding Championships, the Kite World Cup, the Dakhla triathlon, and the international open water swimming competition, “Morocco Swim Trek.”
“The municipality has invested in mainstream and water sports, taking advantage of its climate characteristics and its geographical location,” says ACES Europe.
From November 6 to 8, evaluators from ACES Europe visited Dakhla to review its candidacy for the Euro-Mediterranean City of Sport award.
During Dakhla’s review, the evaluation committee visited sports facilities including sites for Kitesurfing and water sports, the Royal Golf of Dakhla, track athletics, the summer resort, the Mohammed VI stadium, the municipal stadium and the Al Massira Municipal football stadium, as well as the indoor sports hall and municipal swimming pool.
The committee also observed the sports infrastructure available to the city and developmental efforts made by Morocco in all sporting sectors including the promotion of the role that young people and women have in society.
The Euro-Mediterranean City of Sport prize is annually awarded to a city that actively progresses its sports development and integrates all social categories through sports. Dakhla was the only city on the southern shore of the Mediterranean that succeeded in doing so.
Based in Brussels, ACES Europe is a non-profit association that awards individual recognitions of European Capital, City, Community, and Town of Sport to locations that use sports to carefully consider responsibility and ethics principles.
ACES Europe aims to recognize areas that aggregate society, improve the quality of life, maintain psycho-physical well-being, and completely integrate social classes in a community through sports.
