PESHAWAR: Pakistan Army lifted the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy for the 24th time when they secured 7909 points with 150 gold medals, 134 silver and 96 bronze medals at the 33rd National Games which concluded here on Saturday amid a colourful closing ceremony.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were awarded the fairplay trophy.

Governor Khyber Pakhtun­khwa Shah Farman was the chief guest on the occasion and awarded the Quaid-e-Azam trophy to Pakistan Army and fairplay trophy to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s two gold medallists Murad Ahmad (karate) and Murad Ali (badminton).

A total of 10,000 athletes from 14 different units of the country took part in the Games including Pakistan Army, Pakistan Air Force, Pakistan Navy, Punjab, Pakistan Police, Sindh, Balochistan, Wapda, Railways, HEC, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and hosts Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Besides the governor, President Pakistan Olympic Assoc­iation retired Lt Gen Arif Hassan, Secretary Khalid Mehmood, President KP Olympic Association Syed Aqil Shah, Secretary Sports Kamran Rehman, Director General Sports Asfandyar Khattak, Managing Director Tourism Corporation Junaid Khan, players and a large number of spectators were also present at the closing ceremony.

Stringent security measures were in place in and around the Qayyum Sports Complex during the ceremony.

KP take fairplay trophy

Wapda secured the second position with 7093 points when it grabbed 148 gold medals, 99 silver medals and 73 bronze medals. Pakistan Navy clinched the third position with 1770 points with 21 gold, 24 silver and 22 bronze medals. Pakistan Railways got the third position with 1815 points with 12 gold, 20 silver medals and 73 bronze medals. PAF got 1426 points with 11 gold, 16 silver and 31 bronze medals. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained at seventh with 1287 points, by grabbing two gold, five silver and 34 bronze medals. HEC with 11 gold medals, 11 silver and 38 bronze medals got 8th position.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa won more medals and points than HEC in the National Games which is a huge achievement. HEC players have been on the points table before, but this time KP players performing 1285 points with ‘two gold’ five silver medals and 34 bronze medals.

The total cost of the Games was around Rs 220 million. The National Games were aimed to portray a soft image of the country as well as of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the world. “We are a peace loving nation and through these National Games, we are giving a message of peace to the rest of the world,” Governor Shah Farman said in his brief talk.

The action on Saturday saw various events contested here.

Basketball: In the men’s final, Pakistan Army defeated PAF 68-57 to win gold. In the third position clash, Wapda won the bronze by defeating Punjab 95-67. Wapda’s Zaman 22 and Punjab’s Adnan scored 25 points.

Army also won the women’s basketball gold when they beat Wapda 66-54. Punjab secured third position by beating Railways 50-36.

Volleyball: Wapda won the men’s volleyball title while Army clinched the women’s title here on Saturday. Army defeated Wapda 25-17, 25-17, 25-19 in the women’s final. In the third position match, HEC defeated Police 25-9, 25-20 and 25-19.

In the men’s volleyball final, Wapda beat PAF 29-13, 25-19, 25-21 and 25-19 to clinch gold medal. In the third position match, Army defeated Navy 33-31, 25-18, 21-25 and 25-16 to win bronze.

President Pakistan Volleyball Federation, Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqub and Former Deputy Director Sports retired Colonel Qaiser Mustafa distributed prizes among the players.

Wapda dominated the karate event in both the men and women categories, finishing top with eight gold medals, two silver and three bronze, securing 340 points.

With two gold medals, 10 silver, six bronze medals and 250 points each, Pakistan Railways and Balochistan were jointly declared third, earning one gold, two silver, nine and three bronze respectively. Both secured 116 points each.

On the last day of the competition, five women’s and one men’s event was contested. In the men’s over 84kg category, Baz Mohammad of Wapda won gold, Army’s Mohammad Litif won silver, Mirza Arsalan Ahmed of Railway and Jamal Abdul Naser of Balochistan won bronze medals.

In the men’s team event called Komita, Wapda took first position, Balochistan second, Army and Railway took third and fourth position respectively. In the women’s 61kg category, Naz Gul of Wapda won gold, Railway Suryya got silver, Shereen of Sindh and Hina Khan of Army won bronze medals.

In 68kg, Kulsoom of Wapda took first position, Aisha Amjad of HEC second, Army’s Anusha Khan and Railway Nazi Dana took third position. In the more than 68kg category, Nargis of Wapda won gold, Army’s Hina Azeem won silver, Islamabad’s Rosh William and Punjab’s Sayed Mabin won bronze medals. Wapda took first position in this event, Army came second, HEC and Balochistan got third position. Director General Tourism Corporation Junaid Khan distributed prizes to the players.

Meanwhile, Wapda defeated Army 4-3 in a thrilling hockey final to win the gold medal. President Pakistan Hockey Federation Sajjad Khokar and Secretary General Asif Bajwa distributed prizes among the players. From Wapda, Shji Ahmed, Tasawar Iqbal, Rizwan and Azeem scored one goal each while Ali Haider and Noman scored from the Army.

In the third-position match, Punjab defeated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 4-1. Adnan two from Punjab, Arshad and Abu Bakar scored one goal each for the winners while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa scored the only goal through Qaiser Khan.

In boxing, Army clinched the National Games trophy when it grabbed five gold, one silver, two bronze medals while Wapda with four gold medals, two silver and one bronze medals remained second and Balochistan took third position with one gold, one silver and five bronze.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had one gold, two bronze, Sindh one gold, two bronze, PAF one gold, three silver one bronze, Navy one silver, one, two bronze, HEC two silver, Punjab two bronze. Railway won a silver and one bronze medal. In the women’s over 91kg category, Army’s Ahmed Ali won gold, Yasir Jamil Ahmed of Sindh bagged silver, Ali Haider of Azad Kashmir and Mirza Azam of PAF won bronze, In the mens over 91kg category, Army’s Ahmed Ali won gold, Yasir Jamil Ahmed of Sindh bagged silver, Ali Haider of Azad Kashmir and Mirza Azam of PAF won bronze.

Army’s Saif al-Mannan in 75kg won gold medal, Arshad Hussain of PAF won the silver while Kaleemullah of Punjab and Ajmal Khan of HEC won bronze. Army’s Gulzib also won gold medal in 69kg, Adnan Hassan of PAF silver, Muhammad Ali of Navy and Abdul Samad of Balochistan grabbed bronze.

In the 64kg of Salman Baloch won gold medal, followed by Qadir Khan of Navy, Abdul Jalil of Sindh and Naqibullah. In the women 48-51kg Razia Bano of Sindh won gold medal, Balochistan’s Malik Zahid took silver medal and Fatima Zahri of Punjab and Rakhia Bibi of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took bronze medals. Manibullah of Wapda also won bronze.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2019