Best-performing athletes of the Pakistan Army receive the 33rd National Games championship trophy. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman gave away the Quiad-i-Azam trophy to Pakistan Army and fair-play to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s two gold medalists Murad Ahmad (karate) and Murad Ali (badminton).
Besides K-P governor President Pakistan Olympic Association Lt. Gen (Retd) Arif Hassan, Secretary Khalid Mehmood, President K-P Olympic Association Syed Aqil Shah, Secretary Sports Kamran Rehman, Director General Sports Asfandyar Khattak, Managing Director Tourism Corporation Junaid Khan, players and large number of spectators were also present.
It was a tight security measures in and around the Peshawar Sports Complex by the security forces to ensure security to the 10,000 players taking part of the 33rd edition of the National Games.
Besides Pakistan Army, Pakistan Wapda secured second position with 7093 points when it grabbed 148 gold medal, 99 silver medals and 73 bronze medals. Pakistan Railways got fourth position with 1815 points with 12 gold, 20 silver medals and 73 bronze medals.
Pakistan Navy took fourth position with 1770 points with 21 Gold, 24 Silver and 22 Bronze Medals. PAF got 1426 points, 11 gold, 16 silver and 31 bronze medals. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained at seventh with 1287 points, by grabbing two gold, five silver and 34 bronze medals.
HEC with 11 gold medal, 11 silver and 38 bronze medals got 8th position. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa won more medals and points than HEC in 33rd National Games, which is a huge achievement. HEC players have been on the points table before, but this time K-P players performing 1285 points with 'two gold' five silver medals and 34 bronze medals.
Earlier, the grand closing ceremony was started with the recitation from the Holy Quran by Hina Khan, followed by well prepared National Anthem by the children of Agriculture Model School.
A total of 10,000 athletes from 14 different units including Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Punjab, Pakistan Police, Sindh, Balochistan, Wapda, Railways, HEC, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and host Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took part in the mega event.
The games costing Rs220 million helped portray a soft image of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in rest of the world.
International-standard facilities at Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex, Charsadda, Hayatabad Sports Complex, Peshawar, Jamrud Sports Complex, Khyber District, Peshawar Sports Complex and Abbottabad Sports Complex hosted all the 32 Men and 27 Women disciplines. It is worth mentioning here that K-P got the honor of holding these Games for the seventh times earlier K-P organized these Games in 1958, 1974, 1982, 1990, 1998 and 2010.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2019.
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