The Abu Dhabi Sports Council has signed a new partnership agreement with the International Confederation of Registers for Exercise Professionals, ICREPS, a partnership between registered bodies from nine countries, that include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The agreement was signed by Aref Hamad Al Awani, General Secretary of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, and Richard Beddie, Chairman of ICREPS.

The agreement aims to raise the standards of fitness instructors in local clubs, centres and private sporting facilities, in line with the Council’s development plans for all community sports activities, and to promote the local sports culture by adopting modern practices and the latest international standards to develop a professional and advanced level of standards for local fitness professionals.

According to the agreement, the Council will adopt ICERPS’s international standards in all sporting clubs and fitness centres in Abu Dhabi, while ICERPS will share latest international studies on sports medicine and other specialist fields.

Al Awani stressed the importance, for Abu Dhabi’s sports sector, to adopt modern practices and professional standards followed by international sporting organisations and institutions, as well as to support the Council’s plans that will enable the local sports sector to reach an advanced international stature.

He pointed out that their partnership with ICREPS paves the way for joint work to support fitness instructors in clubs and centres in Abu Dhabi, and to work on following professional standards accredited by ICREPS that will allow local instructors to obtain accredited certificates. This move is based on the Council’s desire to support the general community by enabling them to participate in sports and fitness activities under professional standards and with the supervision of accredited instructors, to enhance the emirate’s overall sports development, he added.

Beddie expressed his happiness with ICREPS’s partnership with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, which will allow them to combine their list of partners and spread their professional standards. He explained that the agreement represents an important stage in continuing the process of development and raising the standards of local fitness clubs and centres.

He also stressed that the agreement’s goals will lead to important sporting successes in Abu Dhabi, in terms of the level of participants and fitness instructors, as it relies on international standards that must be met to receive accredited certificates, which will raise the general standards of local sporting clubs and centres.

Source: WAM