Peshawar
Pakistan Army clinched the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for the 24th times when its secured 7909 points with 150 gold medals, 134 silver and 96 bronze medals and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa awarded fairplay trophy of the 33rd National Games which concluded after a colourful closing ceremony.
Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shah Farman was the chief guest on this occasion. He also awarded awarded the Quiad-e-Azam trophy to Pakistan Army and fairplay to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s two gold medalists Murad Ahmad (karate) and Murad Ali (Badminton). Besides Governor President Pakistan Olympic Association Lt. Gen (Retd) Arif Hassan, Secretary Khalid Mehmood, President KP Olympic Association Syed Aqil Shah, Secretary Sports Kamran Rehman, Director General Sports Asfandyar Khattak, Managing Director Tourism Corporation Junaid Khan, players and large number of spectators were also present.
It was a tight security measures in and around the Peshawar Sports Complex by the security forces to ensure security to the 10,000 players’ part of the 33rd edition of the National Games. Besides Pakistan Army, Pakistan Wapda secured second position with 7093 points when it grabbed 148 gold medal, 99 silver medals and 73 bronze medals. Pakistan Railways got fourth position with 1815 points with 12 gold, 20 silver medals and 73 bronze medals.
Pakistan Navy took fourth position with 1770 points with 21 Gold, 24 Silver and 22 Bronze Medals. PAF got 1426 points, 11 gold, 16 silver and 31 bronze medals. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained at seventh with 1287 points, by grabbing two gold, five silver and 34 bronze medals.
Wapda retains its lead in both the Men’s and Women’s categories in the 33rd National Games Karate competition, finishing first with eight gold, two silver and three bronze medals secured 340 points.
With two gold medals, 10 silver, six bronze medals and 250 points each Pakistan Railways and Balochistan jointly declared third, earning one gold, two silver, 9 and three bronze respectively by securing 116 points each.
On the last day of the competition, five Women’s and one Men’s event were played. In the Men’s over 84kg category, Baz Mohammad of Wapda won gold, Army’s Mohammad Litif won silver, Mirza Arsalan Ahmed of Railway and Jamal Abdul Naser of Balochistan won bronze medals.
In the Men’s team event Komita, Wapda took first, Balochistan second, Army and Railway took third position respectively. In the Women’s 61kg category, Naz Gul of Wapda won gold, Railway Suryya got silver, Shereen of Sindh and Hina Khan of Army won bronze medals. In 68 KG, Kulsoom of WAPDA took first position, Aisha Amjad of HEC second, Army’s Anusha Khan and Railway Nazi Dana took third position. In the more than 68kg category, the Nargis of Wapda won gold, Army’s Hina Azeem won silver, Islamabad’s Rosh William and Punjab’s Sayed Mabin won bronze medals. Wapda took first position in this event, Army second, HEC and Balochistan got third position. Director General Tourism Corporation Junaid Khan distributed prizes to the players.
HEC with 11 gold medal, 11 silver and 38 bronze medals got 8th position. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa won more medals and points than HEC in 33rd National Games, which is a huge achievement. HEC players have been on the points table before, but this time KP players performing 1285 points with ‘two gold’ five silver medals and 34 bronze medals.
Earlier, the grand closing ceremony was started with the recitation from the Holy Quran by Hina Khan, followed by well prepared National Anthem by the children of Agriculture Model School.
A total of 10,000 athletes from 14 different units including Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Punjab, Pakistan Police, Sindh, Balochistan, Wapda, Railways, HEC, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and host Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took part in the mega event.
The Games is costing cost Rs 220 million which aimed at to portray a soft image of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in rest of the world. “We are peace loving and believe in peace and through this mega national games, we are giving a message of peace to the rest of the world,” Governor Shah Farman said in brief talks soon after arrival.
International-standard facilities at Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex, Charsadda, Hayatabad Sports Complex, Peshawar, Jamrud Sports Complex, Khyber District, Peshawar Sports Complex and Abbottabad Sports Complex hosted all the 32 Men and 27 Women disciplines. It is worth mentioning here that KP got the honor of holding these Games for the 7th times earlier KP organized these Games in 1958, 1974, 1982, 1990, 1998 and 2010.—APP
