Youth festival: ‘No use sending losing teams to global events’

Record attempt postponed, not forgone.

LAHORE:

Provincial Minister for Sports and Education Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan said on Tuesday that it was better not to send the national hockey team abroad if it was only going to play for ninth or 10th position. “We should improve our game first and then send our team to international events. Efforts are under way to improve the standard.  A training camp will be set up shortly. The team will soon become one of the best in the world,” he said.

Khan was speaking at a press conference at National Hockey Stadium lawns on Tuesday. He said “The Guinness World Record (GWR) bid for largest number of people singing the national anthem was postponed, not cancelled. This was done to maintain standards. We will set the record in a grand manner in the days to come.”

“The Punjab University New Campus Ground has a capacity of 175,000, and there were almost 400,000 enthusiastic participants, which is why we had to postpone the event.” Khan explained. He said this had not been an easy decision. He added that there was a risk that the attempt would case a traffic jam in the entire city, which would also affect the five hospitals around the venue. He said “The new venue will be finalised in consultation with GWR representatives.”

“We have sponsors for the expenses, whom we will try to accommodate” Khan added. He said the Punjab Youth Festival (PYF) was running on schedule except for the record event. “We are going to make 28 attempts for Guinness World Records in the next few days,” he said. He said Pakistan’s World Record for the Largest Human Flag had been officially certified by the Guinness World Record (GWR) team. He said the GWR had updated its official website on February 15, with the record participation of 28,957 youngsters at the National Hockey Stadium.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2014.