PYF 2012: 75,000 youngsters took part in 669 sports in a day

Lahore: The participation figure in the second level of the Punjab Youth Festival 2012 has reached near about 300,000 on day eight of the Union Council phase on Saturday.

On the day alone approximately 75,000 youngsters took part in 669 sports and general events while 1543 Union Councils got involved in different activities throughout the province.

Looking at the overall figure of participation since the Festival started in the last week of August, it has touched 1.8 million. The 55200 Sports and Youth Development Councils of the province first took part in the Neighbourhood and Village level, which was the first phase of the festival while the Union Council level that followed at the second phase will continue till September 18 and then the third phase which is the Tehsil level would roll into action.

Lahore’s nine towns saw 1961 people gathered at different venues from 18 UCs to compete in 57 events of sports and general category. In Nashtar and Gulberg towns over 700 took part in nine events while 254 showed their abilities in Data Ganj Bax town while the other towns including Shalamar, Wagha, Aziz Bhatti, Iqbal, Ravi and Samanabad towns showed an influx of over 150 youngsters each in their respective competition venues.

In Shalimar town, Bilal and Kamran defeated their rivals in the singles competitions while in doubles, Kamran and Hafiz Nabil defeated Bilal and Jalal 20-16.

In the bodybuilding competition of Samanabad Town, Hafiz Imran won the competition in his weight category. International referee Zubair Butt and Imran Qureshi, Mr Pakistan were the chief guest on the occasion.

At Nashtar Town, general category competitions in cooking were held under the supervision of Social Welfare Department in which 16 ladies and students took part. Aiysha Nazim of UC 137 was the winner while UC 134’s Faiza Naeem was second and UC 138’s Farhat Israr was placed third.

Similarly, at Ravi Town, Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan addressed a seminar where of 300 private and government schools for dengue awareness and active participation of the girl students in the Punjab Youth Festival 2012. Mian Marghoob MNA, Iqbal Dogar were also among the guests while Dr Irum Aziz, Ms Musawarat and Ms Kaukab Naseem Butt were also present on the occasion.

The other districts of the Provincial metropolis including Sheikhupura, Kasur and Nankana Sahib sports and other general category events went on unabated and with enthusiasm.

Assessing the participation division-wise, Rawalpindi had the participation of 6786 youngsters in 82 events while 180 Union Councils remained active during the day. In Rawalpindi district 65 Union Councils registered around 2183 persons in 35 events of sports alone. Interestingly in Gujjar Khan Tehsil 464 took part in six events while Murree saw 300 taking part in eight events and over 200 displayed their talent in Kahuta alone. Chakwal had 1974’s participation while Attock got 1493 involved in different competitions.

At Sargodha division, Bhakkar registered 2714 people from 22 UCs in nine events while Sargodha city had the involvement of 1502 and Mianwali 1076 in around 80 competitions. Gujranwala again remained one of the most active Divisions where 15922 assembled for competitions in 99 events. They hailed from 391 UCs while the city of Gujranwala had 1977 participants in 35 events and in Sialkot where 100 UCs generated hectic activity among 9936 people in 22 events.

Another active division of the province turned out to be Faisalabad where 17333 took part in 94 events and out of the 280 UCs, 160 were involved in the Faisalabad city alone. Here 14476 displayed their competitive skills in 80 events.

Sahiwal had 3690 people participation while Multan’s 168 UCs held competitions in 89 categories in which 7430took part. The district of Vehari was more involved than other districts with the involvement of 3100 participants in 10 events.