To add to the chaos and confusion, last year’s runners-up in the men’s hockey event Hyderabad, refused to play against the winners Karachi Greens on the opening day, stating that these two top teams should not have been drawn against each other in the opening round.
The games organisers coaxed the Hyderabad team to play but they flatly refused and awarded a walk-over to the home team.
But on Thursday morning the Hyderabad officials started chirping a different song and demanded for a replay. After a lot of haggling, Ali Nawaz, Member of the Managing Committee obliged the visitors and the match much to the surprise of many was replayed.
In an absolute thriller, Karachi Greens beat Hyderabad 3-2.
In other matches played, Karachi Whites trounced Khairpur 9-0, with centre forward Rasheed slamming in six goals which included a hat trick. This was the second hat trick registered in the tournament. Other scorers for Karachi Whites were Ashfaq, Farhan and Adnan with one goal apiece.
Dadu beat Ghotki 2-0 with left-out Waseem and centre-forward Amin scoring for the winners. Larkana with two goals apiece from Dilnawaz and Mushtaq, breezed past Thatta 4-1, with Shehzad getting the consolation goal for the losers. Jacobabad beat Mithi 2-0. Mohammad Ali netted both the goals and Mirpurkhas with a goal through Imran, beat Shikarpur 1-0.
Naseem Hameed of Karachi Green stole the show in the girls athletic meet, picking up two gold medals in the 200 metres sprint and later claimed the gold medal in the long jump event.
Naseem clocked 30.18 seconds in the 200 metres events and was followed home by team-mate Sumreen, who bagged silver and Karachi White’s Razia Sher Khan, who had to be satisfied with the bronze.
In the long jump Naseem had a leap of 15 feet three inches, with Razia Sher Khan (White) clinching the silver and Sumreen (Green) picking up the silver medal.
The 800 metres event was run under very hot and humid conditions. Nadia Khan from Karachi Green clocking 2 minutes 57.99 seconds breasted the tape ahead of Nuzhat (Larkana) 3.03.65. Kiran Alladin from Karachi Green was third in 3.03.70.
Mehreen from Shikarpur hurled the discuss to 84 feet three inches to bag the gold medal. Karachi Green’s Sana Shafiq won the silver medal tossing the discuss to 78 feet and five inches while Wawab also from Shikarpur claiming the bronze with 71 feet.
The shotput gold went to Hyderabad’s Sabin, who hurled the putt to 25 feet five inches. Sana Imtiaz from Nawabshah was second with 23 feet one inch.
Khairpur’s Zamir Ahmad won the javelin gold with a throw of 148.5 feet. His team-mate Mansoor got the silver and Saud Asghar of Karachi Greens earned bronze.
In the last event of the day Rizwan Razzak of Karachi Greens won the 800m. Ramchand of Mirpurkhas and Hussain Nasrullah of Karachi Whites ended with silver and bronze medals.
In the girls table tennis event, Karachi Green scraped through to the semi-final after beating Hyderabad 3-2.
After Ghalia Khurram gave the Karachi Green a winning lead by beating Anita Saleem 11-4, 12-10, 11-6, Hyderabad took over the running when Uzma Saleem beat the top seed Hina Mahmood 11-6, 4-11, 11-8, 2-11, 11-9 and Amza Pervaiz surprised Sana Asghar 11-3, 6-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6.
The Hyderabad girls scenting victory cheered their team-mates for every point earned, but Ghalia Khurram once again rose to the occasion by trouncing Uzma in three straight sets 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 to help Green to level the scores 2-2.
In the deciding encounter, Hina beat Anita in five gruelling games 11-14, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7 and 11-9. The scores were tied 9-9 in the final set but two crisp forehand smashes by Hina sealed the match for Karachi Green.
In other matches played Larkana beat Badin 3-0 (Rasheeda beat Shumila 11-7, 15-13, 11-4. Neelam beat Rafia 11-7, 11-3, 11-6, Amber beat Ishrat 12-10, 11-9, 11-4. Shikarpur beat Nawabshah 3-0. (Faryal Usmani beat Hira Ikram 11-8, 11-5, 11-9, Neelam Chisti beat Roozi Hira Masih 7-11, 12-10, 11-8, 7-11, 11-5. Murk Dahar beat Anam Zahid 11-9. 11-2, 11/4.
In the boys event Karachi Whites and Dadu stormed into the semi-finals.
Karachi Whites beat Mirpurkhas 3-0 (Kamran beat Zulfiqar 11-3, 11-2, 11-2, Ayaz beat Ghulam Nabi 11-4, 11-4, 11-7, while Haziq accounted for Amjad Khan 11-7, 11-3, 11-7.
Dadu dropped one match before overcoming the challenge of Mithi 3-1. (Manzoor beat Sandeep 11-1, 11-2, 11-3, Rajab beat Raja 11-1, 11-3, 11-2, Zahid lost to Laxman 9-11, 6-11, 11-6, 6-11 and Manzoor beat Raja 11-6, 11-3, 11-3.
BADMINTON: Badin beat Thatta 2-0, Larkana beat Mirpurkhas 2-0, Shikarpur beat Khairpur 2-0, Nashehro Feroz beat Jacobabad 3-2, Karachi Green beat Hyderabad 3-2, Karachi White beat Ghotki 2-0.
SHOOTINGBALL: Nawabshah beat Mirpurkhas 16-11, 11-16, 16-14. Sanghar w/o Badin, Khairpur beat Sukkur 16/9, 16/9, Karachi Green beat Karachi White 16-4, 16-9, Thatta beat Shikarpur 5-16, 16-3, 16-10, Larkana beat Nashehro Feroz 16-11, 8-16, 16-9, Karachi Green then reached the semi-final after lowering the colours of Thatta 16-11, 16/11. Khairpur also reached the last four after accounting for Sanghar 16-9, 16-8.
HOCKEY
BOYS: Karachi Green beat Sukkur on penalty strokes 5-2 (full time 1-1).
Karachi Whites beat Sanghar 5-2.
Larkana beat Hyderabad 2-0.
GIRLS:
Karachi Green beat Karachi White 9-1.
Hyderabad beat Khairpur 3-0.
Sukkur beat Larkana 4-0.