Punjab Youth Festival: Pakistan outshines India, yet again

Win five out of six arm-wrestling and weightlifting completions.

LAHORE:

Pakistan outshone India for the second day at the Punjab Youth Festival on Tuesday as men’s and women’s arm-wrestling teams won five out of six matches in different categories.

The two-day Pakistan-India Punjab Games are part of the Punjab Youth Festival.

In the first encounter of the day, Pakistan’s Zameer Sultan trounced India’s Balraj Singh (2-0) in a 65-kilogram category. The 75-kg contest was won by Pakistan’s Ammad Butt, who overwhelmed India’s Tilkraj Mehra in two rounds. Pakistan’s Saifur Rehman Sulehria’s aggressive approach won him the third arm-wrestling match by defeating Dilbagh Singh in a 75-kg plus class.

On the women’s side, India’s Mandeep Kaur demonstrated handy technique and defeated Rabia Khalil of the host team in the 60-kg category. This was India’s only victory in arm-wrestling competitions on Tuesday.

Separately, Pakistan’s Saadia Khalil won against India’s Jasbeer Kaur in the 70-kg class. Jasbeer Kaur had, however, offered brilliant resistance and took her match to the third round by winning the second round. This was the only clash of the day that went the distance.

In the women’s third match, India’s Navneet Kaur lost to Tayyaba Khan of Pakistan in 70-kg plus match. All three Indian women players were members of their kabaddi team.

Weight lifting

Pakistani players also remained dominant in the weightlifting events winning three out of four bouts.

In the 105-kg weight category, Mustaqeem Butt defeated India’s Harbajhan Singh while Azhar Amir Butt defeated India’s Prithi Pal Singh in the same weight category. The 94-kg weight category title went to India with India’s Pardeep Singh beating Anas Javed of Pakistan. Muhammad Shahzad defeated Bhopinder Singh in the 56-kg category.

Inter-division competitions

Players from Lahore division dominated the college and university competition in both boys’ and girls’ events.

College level gymnastic event was won by Punjab College with big margins, while the Government College University (GCU) won the university level competitions. With 110.5 points, GCU won gold medals in all categories. University of Gujrat came second with 43.7 points and Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan third with 17.7 points.

Ghulam Qadir from GCU was declared the best gymnast with the most gold medals in floor exercise, vault, pummel horse and high bar competitions.

At college level gymnastic competition, Punjab College of Commerce beat Punjab College Gujranwala after a long tussle. Government Science College Multan came third. Ghulam Hur, who won the high bar and parallel bar competitions at college level, was declared the best gymnast. Ansar Iqbal won the gold medal in pomal horse event.

Lahore division defeated the Gujranwala division at college level football by 4-2.

Punjab University and University of Sargodha qualified for the final of the university level girls’ hockey competition. In the first-semi final played at National Hockey Stadium, PU had defeated Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan by 11-0.

University of Sargodha beat GCU Faisalabad by two goals. At college level, Multan and Lahore divisions teams reached the finals after defeating Faisalabad division and Bahawalpur division, respectively in the semi-finals. In the first semi-final, Multan beat Faisalabad (4-3). Lahore also defeated Bahawalpur by 7-0 in the second semi-final.

In the college level girls’ volleyball, Faisalabad division and Lahore division booked place in the final. Lahore and Bahawalpur qualified for the final of university level.

In touch ball open event, Lahore and Faisalabad divisions will meet in the final after Faisalabad division beat Bahawalpur division in the first semi-final by 10-1 and Lahore defeated Multan by 5-0 in the second semi-final.

Paralympic games

Paralympic games also held at the Punjab Stadium paid tribute to Pakistan Army men disabled in war. The participants took part in crutches race, wheelchair race and archery and football events. Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar was the chief guest at the event.

The event started with a football competition in which Army Reds defeated Army Whites (1-0). Muhammad Naseer of Army Reds scored the match-winning goal.

The 100-metre bladders race was held among five players, with the gold medal won by Muhammad Yaseen. Noor Shad earned the second place and Atif Bashir the third position.

In the 100-metre crutches race, Arif Hussain came first, Zaheer Abbas second and Muhammad Ashfaq third.

The 50-metre wheelchair race was won by Rahmat Kareem with Atif Bashir as the first and Umar Farooq the second runner-up.

The governor said that he was proud of the ghazi soldiers who “did wonders in the battle field and kept the green flag high”.

Youth seminar

A youth seminar was arranged by the Ministry of Education at the Lahore Expo Centre.

Lectures were delivered by IT experts on how students could earn money through internet working from home. Patriotic songs’ competition was also organised at the venue.

A short films and drama festival has also begun at the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2014.