PESHAWAR, Feb 2: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and Pakistan Police recorded victories in the 55th National Hockey Championship being played here at the Lala Ayub Hockey Stadium on Saturday.

Results after the conclusion of the preliminary departmental round, showed National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and HBL from Pool ‘A’, Army and Wapda from Pool ‘B’, PIA and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) from Pool ‘C’ and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Port Qasim from Pool ‘D’ reaching the final round of the championship which commences on Feb 5, at the same venue.

NBP, with nine points, was the leader in Pool ‘A’, followed by HBL with six points after they lost against NBP. In Pool ‘B’, Army with nine points are on top, followed by Wapda with six points. PIA was the leader in Pool ‘C’, followed by SSGC while PAF with their five points head Pool ‘D’, followed by Port Qasim who also have five points.

Earlier, HBL defeated Pakistan Customs 4-2. HBL took the lead in the third minute when full-back Rana Zubair sounded the board on the first penalty corner but then also conceded two goals to Customs who quickly scored twice in the 20th and 22nd minutes on field attempts through Falak Zaman and Kamran.

But HBL came back strongly by scoring three more goals in the 35th, 50th and 68th minutes to make it 4-2. Full-back Rana Zubair twice sounded the board with his beautiful penalty corner conversion hits. The match was supervised by Hidayatullah and Kamran Sharif.

In the second match, Police defeated Pakistan Railways 4-3 before leading by 2-1 at half-time. Police took the lead in the eighth minute through Farzan Ali while Atif Baig doubled the lead in the 17th on a field attempt. In the dying moments of the first-half, Railways converted a fine penalty corner through Sohail Imran to make the score 2-1. Right-winger Waqas Umar and Mubashir Hussain scored one goal each for Police while Abu Bakar and Zulfiqar scored one goal each for Railways to make it 4-3.

Mohsin Ali Khan and Raja Anwar Kamal supervised the match.

In the third match, PIA edged past SSGC by 2-1. PIA’s frontline featuring

Dilawar Hussain, Imran Abbas, Inayatullah, Shafqat Rasool, Waqas Akbar kept shattering their rival’s defence until they got the lead in the third minute through inside-left Shafqat Rasool.

But the lead was soon levelled by inside-left Shabir Ahmed on a field attempt with both teams tied 1-1 at half-time. PIA got the lead in the 40th minute when full-back Ihsanullah sounded the board with his powerful hit to make the score 2-1. Thus PIA won the match supervised by Anwar Hussain and Asif Junior.—APP