Lahore hosted an international event, Fun-Run, at Wapda Sports Complex last week. It was organised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in collaboration with the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

The OCA, giving respect and honour to Pakistan, organised this event first here and it would later be held in 27 other countries of the continent as a part of awareness drive regarding 2018 Asian Games being held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in September.

A good number of youth, students of schools and colleges and some prominent athletes of the country attended the event. Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Shahbaz Senior, olympians Manzoorul Hassan, Muhammad Sarwar, Muhammad Saqlain, POA president retired Lt Gen Arif Hasan, secretary Khalid Mahmood and heads of the various national sports federations were present.

POA president Arif Hasan said Pakistan would compete in 30 sports of the Asian gala, out of total 40 disciplines. He urged the government to start the preparations of the athletes for the games and added that India had allocated billions of rupees for the 2020 Olympics Games but Pakistan was yet to take a start to prepare the athletes for the next year event of Asian Games, which was biggest sporting event of Asia.

Arif said Pakistan, like India, could also earn honours in the world of sports with better planning.

A three-member delegation of the OCA was also in Lahore to monitor the arrangements for the function. He also read out the message of the OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah and praised the POA and Wapda Sports Control Board for organising the event. Mr Jeans of the OCA was all praise for Pakistan for sending its contingent to the Asian Games in the past.

Pakistan athletes have some chances to win medals at the Asian Games in hockey, martial arts, weightlifting and wrestling. About 10,000 men and women athletes of 44 countries of Asia will participate in 40 sports.

The Dar Hockey Academy has decided to organise second edition of the Lahore Inter-School Hockey Tournament next week. The two-day event would start on Dec 15 and six teams are expected to take part in it. The teams are from the Aitcheson College, KIMS, School Lahore, Model High School, Model Town, Government Chandbagh School, Shahdara and Government High School, Kasur, the reigning champion of the Jaffer Memorial Hockey Tournament.

Former Olympian Tauqir Dar said efforts were being made to promote the sport at the school level. He said despite all efforts, only six schools of Lahore had confirmed their participation in the tournament.

Tauqir is running the Dar Hockey Academy, providing free coaching, hockey equipment and training to all its students. He said the idea to promote hockey at school level would make the game popular at this grassroots level. He lamented that the response from the schools was not encouraging and he urged the government and private schools to provide sporting environment to their students.

Last week, women and men powerlifters of Pakistan toured Singapore and bagged 11 gold medals in the Oceania-Pacific Powerlifting Championships.

Saniha Ghafoor and Twinkle Sohail bagged eight gold medals in 57kg and 72kg weight categories in the women section while Syed Nadeem Hashmi, Muhammad Ahmed Khan and Mahmood Heera won gold medals in men in different categories.

Another woman player of Pakistan, Sybil Sohail, is yet to compete in 47kg seniors competition and there is hope for more medals from the women section.

Malik Rasheed, who is with the Pakistani teams as a coach, says that impressed by the performance of Saniha, Australian Sports Commission has picked her for a three-month training programme at their centre in Melbourne. It is good sign that Pakistani women are taking interest in such sports like weightlifting, boxing and powerlifting, which in the were are considered to be men’s sports.

Model Town Football Academy returned home from Dubai after winning the third place in the UAE Winter Classic-2017 Football, an Under-13 competition. The academy had qualified for the semifinal where it was defeated by AC Milan Academy Kuwait. “The Model Town Academy has seized the third place which is quite satisfactory,” said Mian Rizwan Ali, president of the academy.

Model Town Football U-13 team reached Lahore after success in UAE Winter Classic -2017 Dubai.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2017