Disabled athletes shine at youth festival

LAHORE:

Competitions among disabled athletes were the highlight of the Punjab Youth Festival at the Punjab Stadium on Friday.

Punjab Sports Board Deputy Director Hafeez Bhatti distributed prizes among the winners.

Shahzad Akram from Sahiwal won the 100-metres race among blind athletes.

Umer Fayyaz of Faisalabad and Muhammad Danish Bhatti of Rawalpindi grabbed the second and third positions respectively.

The title of 50 metre race for blind girls went to Lahore’s Huma Ashraf. Attiyya Allah Bakhsh of Sargodha and Wajeeha Shafiq of Rawalpindi stood second and third respectively.

In the 100-metres race for deaf boys, Fakhar Iqbal of Rawalpindi was the winner, Sargodha’s Muhammad Zahid was second and Rashid Ali of Faisalabad stood third.

Among girls, Sahiwal’s Neelum Mukhtar was the winner. Amna Batool of Multan was second and Sobia Hayat of Sargodha took the third position.

Multan’s Ahmed Yar won the disabled persons’ wheelchair race. Lahore’s Muhammad Ishaq was second and Rawalpindi’s Qaiser Mehmood was third.

The 100-metres boys’ race for special persons was won by Gujranwala’s Sultan Ahmed. Shahzad Maqbool of Lahore took the second position and Sargodha’s Rizwan finished third.

Sumaira Batool was the winner of the girls’ race in the category. Zobia Rani of Gujranwala took the second slot and Multan’s Nusrat was third.

Sajjad Masih clinched the best power-lifter award. Tahir Baloch of Sargodha Division won the 62-kg category. Azam Mukhtar from Multan was second and Naveed from DG Khan was third.

Sajjad Masih of Lahore won the first position in 77kg weight category, Nabeel from Faisalabad was second and Muhammad Luqman was third. Qaiser Mehmood from Rawalpindi was the winner in 94kg weight category.

Former MPA Sohail Zia Butt was the chief guest and was accompanied by Sports Board DG Usman Anwar.

The cricket teams of Lahore, Sahiwal, Bahawalpur and Gujranwala defeated their respective opponents in the semi finals of the Punjab Youth Festival (PYF) Blind Cricket Tournament played at the UET cricket ground on Friday.

Bahawalpur chased Faisalabad’s target of 48 runs in the first match and confirmed their place in the semi finals. Sahiwal beat DG Khan by 10 wickets in the second encounter.

Lahore beat Multan by nine wickets. Lahore batsmen chased the 71 runs target in the fifth over of the innings.

In the fourth and last match of the day, Gujranwala scripted a 10-wicket victory against Sargodha.

Sargodha managed 68 runs against Gujranwala.

The semi finals will be played on Saturday (today).

Bodybuilders from various countries will compete for the title of Mr South Asia and Junior Mr South Asia on Saturday.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2014.