Army retain Quaid-i-Azam Trophy

Winners conclude National Games with 139 gold medals.

KARACHI: Army retained the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy after winning the National Games with 139 gold medals and an overall tally of 264 at the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad yesterday.

Punjab finished second with 54 medals, which included 15 golds, while Navy and PAF were joint-third with six golds each.

Others to take home gold medals were Railways (five), Sindh (three), hosts Islamabad (three) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (one). Balochistan and Fata failed to collect any gold medals but they managed 12 (three silver, nine bronze) and two (one silver, one bronze) medals respectively.



“Though we were clear favourites, winning the National Games once again is a very proud achievement for us,” an Army athlete told The Express Tribune. “People said that Wapda’s absence is the reason we won, but I can safely say that even if Wapda had participated we would have still triumphed.”

Punjab win hockey gold

Punjab downed Army to win a thrilling hockey final on penalty strokes after the game ended 3-3.

Dilbar Hussain netted the first goal for the winners from a penalty corner in the ninth minute but Kashif Ali levelled 15 minutes later. Kashif then put Army in the lead just a minute before half-time. Army then conceded an own goal in the 38th minute, but restored their lead in the 61st. However, Kashif Abbas snatched an equaliser towards the end of the game to send it to a penalty  shootout which Punjab won.

The men’s marathon competition was won by Army’s Shahid Ali as he clocked 2:24:03, while in the women’s 100-metre hurdle race, Punjab’s Javeria triumphed by clocking 18.09s.

K-P defeated PAF in the squash team’s final event, winning 2-0 as the duo of Mansoor Zaman and Waqas Mehboob outplayed Naved Atlas and Farhan Zaman.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2013.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.