HARIPUR, May 18: Abbottabad was off to a flying start when 17-year-old Khurrum Shehzad grabbed the first gold medal in the 800m in the NWFP Inter-District Athletics Championship, which got underway here at the Chaman Park Stadium Khalabat Township on Sunday.

In the first event of the day, the upcoming young athlete Khurrum Shehzad, hailing from Army School of Physical Training, District Abbottabad, won the gold medal clocking 2 minutes and 15 seconds, followed by another promising athlete, the 16-year-old Munir Hussain from Haripur Public School claiming the silver medal and Mujahid Hussain, also of Army School, Abbottabad, getting the bronze.

Abbottabad athletes clean sweeped the long jump event when they bagged the gold, silver and bronze medals in the event with Mazar Farid (19.06 feet), Muhammad Irfan (18.08 feet) and Hafiz Anwar (18.05 feet) bagging the first, second and third positions, respectively.

In shot put, Waseem Anwar of Mansehra, (36.04 feet) took the gold medal, followed by Ajmal Khan of Haripur (32.05 feet) and Abid Niaz, also of Haripur (32.02 feet), who bagged the silver and bronze.

In the 3000m Umar Aamir of Haripur took the gold medal, followed by Shafiqur Rehman also of Haripur and Fazale Umar of Bhatagram.

More then 200 athletes from 14 districts of NWFP comprising Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Swat, Swabi, Bhatagram, Manserhra, Abbottabad, Tank, Lakki Marwat, Shangla, Chitral, Malakand and hosts Haripur are taking part in the championship.—APP