Islamabad beat Punjab in Special Olympics

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad leading the event after they win their first and second round matches.

KARACHI: Islamabad defeated Punjab 25-13, 25-15 as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa outplayed Sindh 25-11, 27-25 after a tense second round of volleyball matches in the Special Olympics of Pakistan’s (SOP) Eighth National Games.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad are leading the event after they won their first and second round matches while Punjab and Sindh are yet to register a win.

Sindh bagged four gold medals while Punjab secured one gold and four silver medals at the bocce male and female events.

The SOP Olympics National Games are held for the intellectually challenged athletes. The athletes are to compete in volleyball, bocce and aquatics events to book their place in the Pakistan squad for the World Special Olympics that will take place in June next year.

The aquatics main event will take place today as 32 athletes will contest in the event after the preliminaries were held for the 50, 25, 15-metre individual swimming events. These include freestyle and backstroke competitions in both male and female categories.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2010.