New Zealand Muslim Sports Association (NZMSA) hosted a three-day sports carnival from Friday, December 9 to Sunday, December 11, at Centre Park in Mangere.
NZMSA in association with Federation of Islamic Association of New Zealand (FIANZ) host two community sports events every year, Unity Cup, which is held in March–April and Eid Cup, just after the Eid-ul-Adha festival.
The event brings more than 400 participants in different categories and sub-categories. Since football is the biggest attraction for the community, participants are subdivided into three groups such as Mens’ teams, Kids Madrassa teams for players in U10 and U13 category, and Youth Soccer for players in U15 and U18 category.
The other two outdoor sports activities held are volleyball and cricket. Besides the main sports tournament, NZMSA also conducted Quran recitation, Oratory or Naat competitions, which took place on December 9 at Airport Mosque.
“The concept of the sports tournament is to unite the youth using sports as a medium. There is also a huge pool of talent in the community, and this is a platform for them to participate and showcase it,” Shaheen Rah’mani, Chairman of the Tournament said.
“The tournament, although organised by Muslim Sports Association, involves everyone in the community irrespective of their faith and beliefs,” he added.
The Men's Soccer has 16 teams, four in each pool. Pool A has Ponsonby, Manukau, Botany, and Mt. Wellington teams. Pool B comprises teams from Avondale, Dannemora, Mangere, and Lynfield. West Gate, Takanini, Papatoetoe, and Waikato formed Pool C, and Pool D had Airport Oaks, Onehunga, Green Bay, and Otahuhu teams.
Manautal Islam runners up in U10 Madrassa soccer team
Airport Oaks and Westgate were the two new teams this year, and the Ponsonby team was defending their title for this year. Avondale defeated Dannemora in the final with a 1–0 score.
The Madrassa Soccer had nine teams in U13 and seven in U10 categories with seven players in each team. Ranui mosque, Maunatul Islam (Mangere), Waikato Islamic School, Park Ave, Al Noor (Papatoetoe), Al-Falah (Botany), Al Taqwa (Manukau), Al-Farouq (Otahuhu), New Lynn mosque participated.
Ranui Mosque teams defeated Waikato Islamic School in U13 and Maunatul Islam in U10 category.
The Youth Soccer had four teams participating—Onehunga, Ponsonby, Mangere and Ranui with 11 players in each team. Ponsonby defeated Onehunga in U15 and Onehunga won against Mangere team in the U18 category.
The T20 cricket matches were held over two weekends with preliminary rounds on December 4 and finals on December 11. The Ponsonby team scored 230 runs in 20 overs, limiting Airport Oaks with only 180 runs.
Takanini mosque won the main Quran recitation competition followed by Airport Oaks. Raeesh and Shoaib from Mosque Al-noor won the U13 and U10 Madrassa Quran recitation competition. Maunatul Islam team won the Naat (oratory) competition.
Hafiz Junaid from Al Noor Educational Trust in Papatoetoe, Feroz Patel, Dr Iqbal and Liaqat Ali from NZMA were the chief guests for the tournament, and they also represented FIANZ, the apex body of the Muslim community in New Zealand.
More than 2,500 people visited the three-day tournament that also had fun activities for the non-participating members of the community. Bouncy castles and fun rides were arranged for the children along with food and henna stalls for the visitors.
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