Lahore goes in sports history books

Lahore: Lahore wrote new history in sports with the start of Punjab international sports festival when international competitions were held in baseball, rugby and kabaddi at different venues and Pakistan got the honour of winning the Dosti Cup wrestling Cup defeating India 4-2 here on Thursday.

It is the first time that a number of international events are taking place simultaneously as a part of the festival and other attractions of the day were Pak-India wrestling Cup, hockey series and Pak-India deaf Dosti cricket Cup in which a T-20 match was played.

In Dosti wrestling cup home side won the four bouts as the Indian got success in two in the one day event. In the first bout Sajjad Iqabal of Pakistan beat Prince in 55 kgs, Pakistan’s Basharat Ali beat Indian Ranjeet Singh in 60kgs, Haider Ali gave Pakistan its third success beating Indian Visho Deep in 74kgs, Omair Butt beat beat Indian Satveer Singh in 84kgs, Indian Gorpaul beat Pakistans GHulam Hussain in 96kgs, Indian Mundeeb beat Pakistans Saeed Ahmed in 120kgs .

Baseball event marked the start of the international events and the hosts Pakistan gave baseball lesson to lowly rated Afghanistan 15-0 to take a confident start in the competition. Mohammad Ahsan Baig and Zubair scored three score each and Usman, Omair,Sameer and Asif shared two score.

A heavy programme was gone through in Ruby event in which ten matches were decided at DHA Rugby ground. Rugby is the only international event of the festival in which eight international teams are taking part. Cambodia All Stars staged the biggest upset of the day beating strong home team Pakistan Gold 19-17 by collecting seven points in the last minute. The opening day proved a nightmare for the home teams as a thee ,out of four ,were beaten in their respective matches.

In other nine matches, New Zealand College Riders beat Pak White 47-0, Holly Wood Ireland bt Pakistan Universities 48-0, Afghan Club Kabul United bt Hong Kong Chinese University 26-0, Delhi Hurricanes India bt Pakistan White 22-5, Uzbek Club beat Pakistan Universities 26-0, Kabul United drew with Pakistan Golf 14-14, NZ college beat Delhi 15-5, Irish club bt Uzbek club 22-0. In the only match of kabaddi , Afghanistan beat Nepal 40-30 before wrapping up the first half 27-17

In Pak-India Dosti hockey Cup the match ,India made desperate efforts in the last ten minutes to earn a 2-2 draw against Pakistan at Johar Town ground before the hose side led 1-0 at half time . Imran Malik gave lead to Pakistan as Sitandir Singh leveled from India in the second half. Imran become centre of attraction by hammering his second goal which helped Pakistan to restore edge. Three minutes before the close Indian side made a great effort to lock the score at 2-2 Harpareet Singh who shone with solo efforts.

In Pak India deaf T-20 match, Pakistan scored a fine 19 runs at Iqbal Park sports complex. The home side batted first scored 148 runs for the loss of six wickets in allotted 15 overs .Man of the match, Kashif was the top scorer with a fluent half century ( 58). In reply the Indian side reach could manage 129 for the loss of seven wicket as Mandeed emerged as the best scorer with 26.

On the side lines of the international sports festival, the national festival also began and competitions were held in Ahltetics (men) and table teniis (women). Following are the results of the events. In Table tennis (female): Balochistan defeated Fata 3-0.Punjab beat Balochistan 3-0.Punjab beat Fata 3-0,NWFP outplayed Balochistan 3-0 and NWFP beat Fata 3-0.In Athletics(male):100 M race: Tanveer abbas of Punjab got first position,200M: Mohammed Anees of Punjab scored first ,in 400 Mohammad Raza of Balochistan achieved first position while in 800 M:Mohammed Shahid of Punjab achieved first positions.In 1500 Mohammad Abdul Samad of Punjab secured first ,Mohammed Imran of Punjab in long jump,Mohamemd Mushtaq in shotput and Altaf Hussain in Javelin throw won the events.