National flair: Pakistan teams show off culture at Shell Eco-marathon

Thailand teams lead the overall scoreboard as race heads into its final day.

MANILA:

Thailand dominated the scoreboard at the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2014 as the race heads into its second day today.

Competing in the “prototype” and “urban concept” models – across various energy sources ranging from electric battery to gasoline – the Thai teams demonstrated their superiority on the track that was designed after borrowing public roads.

While the alternate arrangement made it more challenging for the competing students, former champions from Thailand, team Luk Jao Mae Khlong Prapa of the Dhurakij Pubdit University took the overall lead, driving the equivalent of 1,753.58 kilometres on a single litre of ethanol.

Team ATE.1 of the Kong Thabbok Upatham Changkol Kho So Tho Bo School, also from Thailand, led the scoreboard with a distance of 1,074.12 km on a litre of petrol.



One ray of hope for Pakistan was Hammer Head ARC of the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology that drove the equivalent of 159.95 km per kilowatt hour and stood fifth in its electric battery category in the prototype model. After staying second, the team’s position fell in its category after the afternoon session.

The culture display

However, Hammer Head ARC, along with PNEC-NUST from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) in Karachi, turned heads with their show of Pakistan culture in their booths inside the paddock area.

Showing off tradition as they grasped the opportunity at a multi-nation event, the students were not only occupied with fine-tuning their vehicle design but also decorating their booths with the country’s flags, national dress and the cricket team’s jersey.

Pakistan Ambassador to the Philippines Safdar Hayat visited the venue, meeting students as he looked on in intrigue at the unique nature of the competition.

“There is no shortage of talent in Pakistan students,” Hayat said. “They just need to be disciplined.”

Commenting on the logistical issues that faced the students in reaching the venue with several teams being unable to participate and backing out at the last minute, Hayat said the restrictions would be eased out for next year’s event.

“This is easy to solve. For next year, support would be extended to the teams and guidance would be given. This is a new place for many people and helping them in, let’s say, arranging parts for their vehicles would be done from next year. I hadn’t been informed of Pakistan teams participating in the event, otherwise, we could have made arrangements.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2014.

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