Olympian Shafqat Rasool steered PIA to clinch the title of National Hockey Championship

Lahore: Outstanding performance of Olympian Shafqat Rasool steered defending Champion Pakistan International Airlines to lift the Trophy of the 62^nd National Hockey Championship at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium here on Sunday. PIA beat Pakistan WAPDA in the sudden death stage of the penalty shootouts 7-6.

Shafqat was outstanding throughout the final. He demonstrated his brilliance not only in leading attacks but he tackled and intercepted successfully. One of the most exciting finals of the national hockey history ended into a 2-2 draw in the stipulated time. Both team scored three goals in penalty shootouts session and in the sudden death stage Shafqat didn’t make any error once again while WAPDA’s Irfan failed to net the ball.

If Shafqat was brilliant in the middle Amir Shehzad was marvelous. Amir skillfully tackled but his interception was also excellent. He defended beautifully clearing the ball from his team’s Circle and also led attacks. He initiated an attack in the 31^st minute along with Waqas Akbar and Mohammed Zubair which provide an opportunity for Shafqat to score the first goal. Two minutes later WAPDA’s Mohammed Jaffar leveled the score. In the 44^th minute PIA earned a penalty corner which was converted by Ehsanullah.

The beauty of final was witnessed in the fourth quart of the final. A fairly large crowd enjoyed beautiful dribbling, deceitful dodging and tackling demonstrated by both the teams. WAPDA exerted pressure amid a series of attacks and the ball remained in the half of the PIA most of the time.

Jaffar, Shehbaz and Waseem Ahmed made a move in the 57^th minute on which Umar Bhutta received standing ovation the spectators after netting a beautiful goal.

From WAPDA Umar Bhutta, Tasawar Abbas and Mohammed Jaffar played magnificently. However, their goalkeeper Imran was marvelous who stopped as many as three penalty corners and a couple of direct hits of the opponents.

Earlier, National Bank of Pakistan got third position after beating ARMY 5-3 in the penalty shootouts stage. It was sheer luck of the Bankers who were losing 1-0 till the 59^th minute of the match but managed to convert a penalty corner just seconds before the final whistle to level the score 1-1. ARMY scored their lone goal in the 24^th minute on a penalty stroke. Bankers missed at least two chances to level the score. Shan Irshad’s reckless hit on Azfar Yaqoob’s pass in the circle went outside. Then Dilber also struck a hasty hit on Tousiq’s pass in the Circle which went above the bar.

In the penalty shootouts session Ammad Shakeel, Shan Irshad, Dilber Hassan and Bilal Qadir scored for NBP while for ARMY Kashif Ali and Noman Khan succeeded to dodge the goalkeeper. Mehmood and Sohail Janhua were the field umpires.

At end, Chief Guest Federal Minister For State & Frontier Regions Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch gave away the winning Trophy to PIA captain Mohammed Irfan. PIA was also given a cash prize of Rs. 300, 000 for winning the Championship. WAPDA was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 200, 000 and third position holder NBP got away with Rs. 100, 000.