KARACHI: Ubaid-ur-Rehman of Islamabad and Shab-e-Asra of Faisalabad won the Fastest Man and Fastest Woman titles respectively in the Grand Finale of the event held at the PSB Karachi Centre recently.

Earlier, similar events were organized in eight other cities of the country including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Sukkur, Faisalabad and Hyderabad. All 1st position holders of different age groups from the above mentioned cities participated in the Grand Finale.

Osama Sultan and Umer Saadad clinched second and third position respectively behind winner Ubaid. Among women, Samra Ali and Binte Turab bagged second and third positions respectively behind Shab-e-Asra in the Grand Finale.

The top three position holders in both men and women Open categories received handsome cash prizes of Rs 15000, Rs 10000 and Rs 70000 respectively while other positions holders of four categories were awarded cash prize of 10000, 6000 and 4000 thousand each.

Print and Electronic media persons also participated in a 100-meters race specially arranged for them. Anis-ur-Rehman from Radio Pakistan clinched the 1st position (15.88 sec), Bilal Hussain of PPI was runner-up (16.10 sec) while Umer Shaheen of Jahan-e-Pakistan (16.30 sec) took the third position.

Chief Guest Gen. (Retd) Akram Sahi, President of Athletics Federation of Pakistan, gave the cash prizes, shields and certificates to the positions holders, officials and organizers. Honorary chief guest Mr Huang, who is chief advisor Pak-China Club, appreciated the efforts of Gohar Raza for holding the events in all major cities and said it will surely be a boost for the young athletes in the country. Also present on the occasion were Secretary General Athletics Federation of Pakistan Muhammad Zaffar , Colonel Zafar Ahmed and high-profile coach and mentor Talib Hussain.

Result:

Men (Open): Ubaid-ur-Rehman 10.83, Osama Sultan 11.26, Umer Saadad 11.38

Women (Open): Shab-e-Asra 12.76, Samra Ali 13.27, Binte Turab 13.81

Under-13 (Boys): Saifullah 12.87, Harib Abbasi 12.65 (honorary 1st position), Shahid Rafiq 13.05, Abdullah Kashif 13.77

Under 16 (Boys): Afsar Khan 11.83, Saud Ahmed 12.18, Dilawar Hussain 12.46

Under-16 (Girls): Hiba Khursheed 13.16, Eman Ahmed 13.61, Esha Ali 13.87

Under-19 (Boys): Shahbaz Ali 10.88, Muhammad Laiq 11.52, Aneeb Afridi 11.69

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2017