Punjab Youth Festival: Senior citizens get to be young again

The National Hockey Stadium is undergoing renovation.

LAHORE:

Senior citizens will get a chance to prove their mettle at the Social Welfare Complex, Umer Chowk, Township, on Tuesday (today) where several sports activities have been organised for them as part of the Punjab Youth Festival.

Several competitions including chess, “fun race”, tug-of-war and arm wrestling have been planned. Divisional convener MPA Mian Naseer will be the chief guest. MPA Kanwal Nauman will also attend.

The event organisers told The Express Tribune that the arrangements had been completed for the occasion. They said the residents of the Social Welfare Complex were excited to be a part of the Youth Festival.

Renovation

Several sports venues in the city are undergoing renovation for upcoming events in the festival. Renovation of the National Hockey Stadium began five days ago. It is being white washed and cleaned. New lights and decorations have been put up and flowers placed at the entrance. Several important events of the festival will be held here.

Volunteering

The registration of volunteers for the festival continued at the National Hockey Stadium on Monday. More than 5,000 boys and girls have registered themselves as volunteers for the district level games that begin on January 29 and the final event.

The festival organisers have been distributing forms among the youth and guiding them through the registration process.

Punjab Sports Board Director General Usman Anwar said volunteers played a key role in the success of any sports event. “We are selecting young people to help organise the largest sports event in the world. Those selected will be given proper training that would benefit them in the future,” he said.

Winners and runners up

Anjum XI of UC-28 defeated Friends XI by six wickets in a match of hard ball cricket at Nawaz Sharif Cricket Stadium, Shahdara, on Monday. Friends XI of UC-33, batted first and scored 79 runs for eight wickets in 10 overs. Abdur Razzaq and Ashfaq Ahmed had 30 and 25 runs respectively to their credit. Anjum Hussain and Faiz Rasool, of Anjum XI, got three and two wickets respectively. Anjum XI chased the required target for a loss of four wickets in the ninth over. Muhammad Ashfaq scored 33 runs followed by Faiz Rasool, 28. Later, Anjum Hussain was declared man of the match. MPA Pir Ashraf Rasool and Asghar Munda were guests of honour on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2014.