LAHORE: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) celebrated the Olympic Day by organising three matches under lights here at the National Hockey Stadium on Thursday night.

President of the Pakistan Olympic Association retired Lt General Syed Arif Hasan was the chief guest on the occasion.

The first match was held between two teams comprising young school girls from RAWAH academy. The sides were named Pakistan Olympic Association and Pakistan Hockey Federation.

The second match was played between the Punjab Sports Board and a combined side of coaches, umpires and technical officials involved in the ongoing five-a side tournament at the same venue.

However, the friendly match which evoked a lot of interest was the one staged between Olympians XI and Media XI. Prominent Olympians, World Cup winners and no less than five former national captains were seen in action during this match.

These included illustrious names of Pakistan hockey such as Tahir Zaman, Waseem Feroze, Khawaja Junaid, Usman Sheikh, Qamar Ibrahim, Kamran Ashraf, Naveed Alam, Dr Atif Bashir, Qasim Khan, Mohammad Sarwar and Rehan Butt.

Special gifts and souvenirs were presented to the families at the stadium by the hockey greats who appreciated this fine gesture.

While praising the PHF for marking the Olympic Day in such a wonderful manner, Arif lauded the steps taken by the federation for putting the national game on the right track so that Pakistan hockey could regain its glory.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016