Pakistan clinch baseball, fistball titles

Hosts lead medals table with 11 golds in Punjab Youth Festival.

KARACHI:

Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka 21-2 to clinch the Baseball Championship trophy at the Punjab International Sports Festival in Lahore yesterday.

Sumair Zawar, Mohammad Asif and Umair Bhatti scored for Pakistan as the visitors failed to put up a strong show against the hosts.

In the Fistball men’s championship, Pakistan beat Nepal 3-1 to bag gold. Captain Mujadid Awan was named the player of the tournament.

There was glory for Pakistan in the football tournament as well after they defeated Sri Lanka 3- 0 in an exhibition match that was played to promote the sport in the country. Arif Mahmood scored the opening goal in the 15th minute with Naseem Abbas doubling the lead in the 70th. Arif struck his second in the 80th minute to seal the victory for the hosts.

With gold medals in the baseball and fistball events, Pakistan lead the medals table with 11 gold medals while Iran have two and India have won one gold in the festival.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2012.