2nd Karachi Athletic League twice as successful as first

Track and field event proves big hit among city's school-going children

More than 400 students from over 10 schools took part in the 2^nd Karachi Athletic League (KAL) meet, held at the National Coaching Centre over the weekend.

KAL, which provides a unique platform for Karachi's youth to display and even hone their athleticism, divided the participants into four age groups of U13, U15, U17 and U20.

The event kicked off on Saturday and concluded the next day, during which time more than a 100 individual competitions took place.

Sunday's 100m, 200m finals and the 4x100m relays saw neck-and-neck competition among the athletes. Several races produced photo-finish endings, with podium makers separated only by a 100th of a second — all thanks to the Fully Automated Timing system.

A not-for-profit venture of The Sports Company, KAL has filled a vacuum that had existed in Karachi for a long while: an international standard city-wide athletics meet designed for students to compete against each other.

KAL has been such a huge hit that in just two years that it has become the main athletic attraction for the metropolis's aspiring track and field starlets.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as KAL organisers intend to turn this into at least a biannual affair, and expect to attract more than 1,700 kids from over 15 schools in the next edition, scheduled to be held in the first quarter of 2018.