Punjab’s male athletes win all the five events at Punjab stadium

Lahore: Punjab province, on Friday, took the day’s honours in Punjab National Sports Festival which is being held alongside National Horse and Cattle Show and with the collaboration of Sports Board Punjab (SBP). On the second day of National Sports Festival, hockey, cricket, football, athletics and tug of war competitions were held at different venues of Nishtar Park Sports Complex.

Punjab’s male athletes dominated the day’s proceedings and emerged winners in all the five events at Punjab stadium. The title of 1500m race went to Punjab’s Musawwar ru Rehman, who demonstrated wonderful sprinting while Faras John of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Ashfaq Nadeem of Gilgit Baltistan finished second and third respectively. M Bilal of Punjab left the rest of the runners behind and won the 400m race followed by Qasim of Fata and Raza Ali of Balochistan.

Punjab’s M Anees Ahmed sprinted to 200m race title. The second and third positions were taken by KPK’s Abid Ali and Akhtar Jaan of Fata. The Long Jump contest was clinched by Punjab’s Adnan Jehangir while Shoaib Khan of KPK and Fida Hussain of Sindh remained runner-up and third respectively. The honour of last event was again taken by a Punjab athlete when Danish Mehmood was declared winner in the Shot Putt competition. Khurzaam of Fata and KPK’s Zohaib had to content with second and third pace respectively.

Sindh girls offered great resistance in the Women Athletics meet and clinched two events out of five contests. Punjab’s Javeria Kiran was adjudged triumphant in the 200m race. Haseena Naz of KPK and Shanze Shahid finished second and third respectively. The title of 400m race went to Punjab’s Malhan the next two positions were taken by Naila Bano of Islamabad and Sindh’s Salva Fareed.

Sindh’s Hibba Khursheed captured the title of Long Jump. Punjab’s Javeria Kiran remained runners up and Taskeen Fatima of Islamabad took third place. The next event of athletics competition was also won by a Sindh competitor. This time, Sana Rajpoot left behind all the athletes including Punjab girls to win the title of Shot Putt. The second and third places were taken by Haseena Naz of KPK and Naila of Islamabad. The 4x100m race title went to Punjab team comprising Sahab Asra, Iqbal Bano, Javeria Kiran and Atia Sultana. The Sindh team finished second while the third position was grabbed by Islamabad.

The Tug of War contest was organised at Punjab Stadium where Pakistan Green emerged winners by 2-0 difference against Pakistan White. In the Wrestling contest, Punjab wrestlers took the top honours while the second and third positions were taken by KPK and Sindh respectively.

Fatima of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa women hockey team guided her side to a narrow 1-0 triumph after a nail-biting encounter against Sindh at National Hockey Stadium. Earlier, Punjab women team was awarded walk-over against Fata team which failed to reach the ground on the given time.

In the first match of men’s hockey event, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa defeated Sindh 3-2 after a thrilling contest. In the next match, Punjab handed Azad Kashmir a massive defeat of 9-1. Shan Irshad and Abid Hussain struck two goals each while Asad, Qasim, Ahmed Nadeem, Sultan and Faizan netted one goal each for the victorious team.

In the football competition, Punjab edged out Azad Kashmir by a margin of 2-1 in the first clash of the day at Punjab Football Stadium. Ali and Imran netted goals for Punjab while Mudassar reduced the margin of defeat for Azad Kashmir. In the second match, Fata showed wonderful command and outplayed Gilgit Baltistan by a wide margin of 4-1. The third match was won by Sindh who scripted a narrow victory of 1-0 against Islamabad.

Punjab trounced Azad Kashmir by 91 runs in the first T20 match of cricket tournament at LCCA ground here on Friday. Punjab piled up a total of 185 runs for the loss of five wickets while playing first. Saeed hammered 72 while Tauqeer contributed 32 runs for the winning team. In reply, Azad Kashmir batsmen succumbed to Punjab bowlers and could manage only 94 runs after losing seven wickets.

Sindh defeated Islamabad by 27 runs in the second cricket match of the day. Sindh team scored 154 runs for the loss of 9 wickets and in reply, Islamabad side were bundled out for 125 runs. The third football encounter was won by Fata by 79 runs. They scored 173 runs at the expense of 8 wickets against Gilgit Baltistan, who managed only 94 runs for the loss of 9 wickets.