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Punjab National Sports Festival begins

 

Lahore: Punjab National Sports Festival got under way at Nishtar Park Sports Complex here on Thursday. Some thrilling and entertaining encounters were seen on the opening day.

The 4-day sports festival is being held in connection with National Horse and Cattle Show and with the collaboration of Sports Board Punjab (SBP).

On the opening day, Punjab women hockey team defeated Islamabad by 1-0 after a thrilling contest. The solitary goal of the match was struck by Rimsha Ilyas in the 26th minute.

In the men’s event, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) launched their campaign in style when they outplayed Islamabad by 4-1 at the same venue. Asif, Qaiser, Khalid and Zahid shared the four goals for victorious side while Mannan scored the only goal for the losing team.

In another match, AJK toppled Fata by 3-1. The match was decided on penalty shootouts. Sohrab Aslam, Shahzeb and Atif contributed one goal each for the victorious team while Jawad made the only goal for Fata.

In the third match of the men’s event, Punjab pulverised Gilgil Baltistan by 8-0. Qasim Bhatti and Shajeen Ahmed netted two goals each while Waseem, Shan Arshad, Ahmed and Salman made their presence felt by one goal each. Through some sheer attacks, the Punjab boys made their rival team virtually helpless.

At Punjab Football Stadium, Punjab football team trounced Fata 3-0. Ali stole the show with a magnificent hat-trick for Punjab. The Punjab boys demonstrated wonderful ball control and dodging against their relatively inexperienced opponents.

It’s definitely a big honour for Punjab to host hundreds of athletes from across the country in a major sporting event like National Sports Festival, this was stated by Director General Sports Punjab Usman Anwar on Thursdaywhile talking to media prior to the opening match of National Sports Festival between women hockey teams of Punjab and Islamabad here at National Hockey Stadium.

DG SBP said Sports Board Punjab is organizing the festival on a short notice and even then all the arrangements have been completed. “The sports teams from Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan, Punjab, Islamabad and Azad Kashmir are taking part in athletics, tug-of-war, kabaddi, cricket, hockey, football and wrestling competitions with full enthusiasm which is quite heartening,” he added.

To a question, Usman Anwar said that the planning is underway for the bigger events in near future. “It’s just beginning. We will also invite international teams during our international phase of our festival. The said major event will be highly helpful for the promotion of sports in the country,” he continued. Earlier, women hockey teams of Punjab and Islamabad were introduced to DG SBP.

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