KARACHI: Fancied Karachi maintained its ascendancy by retaining the Moenjodaro trophy after stretching an unprecedented run as curtain fell on the four-day 17th Sindh Games at the PSB Coaching Centre here on Sunday.

Karachi amassed a total of 178 medals — 125-36-16 to made it 17 in-a-row since inception of the games in 1986.

Karachi’s medals break-up is 81-24-12 for men’s 45-12-4 for (women’s.

Though overall runners-up Hyderabad ended up in three figures, a vast difference was quite visible in gold medals. Hyderabad returned with a haul of 122 medals — 15-61-46 to retain its slot.

Sukkur grabbed third spot in the six-team games securing in all 83 medals — 12-20-51 while Mirpurkhas occupied fourth slot with a tally of 68 medals — 7-18-43.

Debutant Shaheed Benazirabad shone by avoiding the bottom spot securing 6-11-39 medals while Larkana finished at the bottom with 4-25-24.

A total of 170 golds, 171 silvers and 219 bronze were distributed among successful athletes in the Games. Two silver medals were awarded in a women’s track event which had raised quite a few eyebrows.

Arbab Tanoli and Esha Iffan, both of Karachi, were declared best male athlete and best female athlete respectively. Shaheed Benazirabad was presented with the Fairplay Trophy.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who graced the closing ceremony, gave away the prizes, while spending an hour at the venue.

After the prize distribution, he watched a PT display by young children besides taking part in a tug-of-war exhibition match and extinguishing the games flame.

He also handed over the Sindh Games flag to representative of Lakrana as the spectacle returns to its birthplace next year.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister congratulated Karachi for winning top honours and termed all the participants from interior Sindh as the winners.

He said hosting of the Games in the metropolis was a good omen after the city played host to the PSL final, and three-match T20 series between Pakistan and the West Indies, international hockey event in the recent past.

He directed the sports department to provide more sporting opportunities to the youth of the province to excel and contribute positively in the nation building.

The chief minister congratulated the young sports minister Sardar Mohammad Buksh Khan Mehar and his team for staging the mega event after a lapse of six year. He also recalled the contribution made by the late Sindh Sports Minister Dr Mohammad Ali Shah who had the honour of organising five games in four years.

Mehar in his speech said it was a big task for him and applauded the organising committee for hosting the event successfully.

Admitting the lapses, Mehar said he had taken action against those responsible.

He called upon the sportspersons to go extra mile and bring laurels to the city, province and the country.

Provincial Secretary Sports Niaz Ali Abbasi said the government had laid 10 synthetic hockey turfs across Sindh besides staging national hockey championship at Sukkur and under-16 hockey contest at Khairpur.

Giving a resume of the Games he said the department provided travelling and daily allowance to all participants including technical officials, accommodation, kit etc.

The ceremony was attended among others by the vice-chancellor of the NED University Sarosh Hashmat Lodi, ex-Olympian Islahuddin, squash great Jahangir Khan.

Final medals table

(Tabulated under gold, silver, bronze, total):

Karachi 126 36 16 178

Hyderabad 15 61 46 122

Sukkur 12 20 51 83

Mirpurkhas 7 18 43 68

Shaheed Benazirabad 6 11 39 56

Larkana 4 25 24 53

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2018