Wahib becomes youngest national chess arbiter

KARACHI: Young Wahib Ali Zaman, a student of class six at the St Pat’s High School, became the youngest national chess arbiter in Pakistan when he successfully passed the FIDE Arbiter’s Course here recently.

The high-profile course was jointly organized by Chess Federation of Pakistan and the Asian Chess Federation under the auspices of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, on Dec 10 and 11 at the Iqra University. It was conducted by well-known FIDE Lecturer, IA Casto Abundo of Philippines, and Pakistan’s IA Muhammad Wasif.

By virtue of his feat, Wahib has also been selected for a Norm for the title of the FIDE Arbiter after the approval of the next FIDE Presidential Board, Athens, Greece.—Agencies

Foreign skiers arrive

ISLAMABAD: As many as 33 foreign skiers arrived in Pakistan on Thursday to participate in international ski races set to be held at the PAF Ski Resort Naltar, Gilgit.

The skiers belong from countries including Holland, Slovakia, Greece, China, Afghanistan, Turkey, Ukraine, France, Switzerland and Tajikistan and will be racing in different categories of the ‘thrilling sport’, said a press Pakistan Air Force press release on Thursday.

Top national skiers from various regions and ski associations of the country will also showcase their talents in the races.

Competing in races against highly ranked skiers of the world would provide an excellent opportunity to Pakistani athletes to learn from their competitors and improve their standing in the world, the press release added.

The skiing season started at the PAF Ski Resort with the commencement of Saadia Khan Ski Cup on Thursday. As many as 19 national female skiers participated in the first race on the snowy slopes of Naltar.—Sports Reporter

Zone VI wins Karachi Region U-19 event

KARACHI: KCCA Zone VI won the PCB Regional Inter-District U-19 one day cricket Tournament (Karachi Region) here after beating Zone V by 156 runs at the Landhi Gymkhana Ground.

Batting first, Zone VI scored an impressive 266-9 in the allotted 50 overs with Usman Rahim scoring a brilliant 126 studded with seven sixes and ten fours.

Muhammad Junaid also scored a fluent 53 with five fours. Aarish Ali of Zone V was the pick of the bowlers with 5-39.

In reply, Zone V crashed out to 110 all out with only Shah Raza (33) and Ahsanullah (34) resisting the Zone VI bowling pair of Muaz bin Salman (4-35) and Badar Qureshi (4-22).—Agencies

Team ICAS wins football event at LUMS Sports Fest

LAHORE: Team ICAS from G-11, Islamabad beat LUMS Karachi to win the girls football tournament at the LUMS International Sports Fest 2018 which held here held in Lahore recently.

Team ICAS, competing here for the first time, outplayed LUMS Karachi 5-0 in a sensational performance. Budding footballers from across Pakistan had flown to Lahore for the this girls under-19 tootball tournament that included twelve teams. Brilliant Emaan Fayyaz, participating for the very first time at national level, won the best player of the tournament award for scoring all the five goals in the final , making her team and school really proud.

Best goalkeeper of the tournament award went to Vera Ayub of ICAS.—Agencies

Islamabad whip Lahore in rugby league

LAHORE: Islamabad Jinns Club outclassed Lahore Hawks 49-20 in their 5th Servis Tyres 15-a-side Rugby League fixture here on Thursday.

Islamabad opened scoring with a fine try through Bilal in the ninth minute before Saad Arif added another in the 15th minute.

Lahore Hawks scored through a penalty conversion by Arif in the 19th minute. Ibrahim put Islamabad further ahead in the 22nd minute by scoring a try.

Arif again converted a penalty to leave Lahore trailing 6-17 at the half time.

In second half, Islamabad continued their domination and scored points at will before winning by a big difference of 29 points.—Sports Reporter

Throwball course in Lahore today

LAHORE: Pakistan Throwball Federation (PTF) is organizing a one-day throwball Rules and Regulations Course 2018 at The City School Gulberg III Lahore on Friday.

The course will be held in collaboration with The City School Lahore and Pakistan Throwball Federation from 4.00pm to 5:30pm.

All sports coordinators, sports teachers, male and female throwball players and fans have been invited to join the throwball course which will help them prepare better for the 2nd All Pakistan School and College Throwball Championship 2018 which will be held from Feb 14-16 at The City School, Lahore.

Special Olympic National Games begin

ISLAMABAD: A colourful opening ceremony of the Special Olympic National Games was held here at the Pakistan Sports Complex on Thursday, a day before the competitions — to be held across the country in phases — formally begin here in table tennis and badminton.

With over a 100 athletes taking part, the next phase will be held in Lahore from the 26th with competitions in football and powerlifting before moving to Karachi from February 18 for basketball, cycling, swimming and tennis events and concluding in March with athletics in Peshawar.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018