The provincial capital will be the hub of sport activities this week with the launch of Punjab government government-sponsored International Youth Sports Festival and the 5th Lahore Inter-School and Inter-Collegiate Games. The festival starts from Nov 8 whereas around 250 schools and colleges will compete in different events from Nov 10.
The provincial government has occupied all its grounds for organizing the festival, forcing the Punjab Olympic Association to search venues at different schools and colleges to organize the events at educational level.
There are going to be competitions in baseball, football, fist-ball, touch-ball (male and female), ju-jistu, rugby and kabaddi. The festival may get some good rating as special events between the Indo-Pak Punjab teams are also part of it. The events are kabaddi, wrestling, tug of war and hockey. Teams for participation in this level of activity have started arriving in the city.
A delegation of Indian business community under the leadership of Indian Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Badal Singh has reached Lahore and will be among the guests during the festival while the Indian contingent of sportsmen will reach here on Tuesday.
The show at the school and college level is also a big one. Around 3500 school children are expected to take part in 25 events for boys and girls including athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, Ju-Jitsu, karate, kickboxing, netball, rowing, rugby, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, tug of war, volleyball, weightlifting and wushu.
The PbOA could only get Punjab Stadium for the event of athletics while the opening ceremony is being held at the Railways Stadium, which is the property of the federal government.
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A good number of former hockey Olympians namely Khalid Mehmood, Shehnaz Shiekh, Saleem Sherwani Sr, Mazoor JR, Qamar Zia, Saleem Nazim, Ayaz Mehmood, Mansoor Ahmad, Mutti-Ullah Khan, M.Saqlain and Navid Alam were disappointed over the treatment meted out to them by the Punjab Sports Board during the Punjab Youth Festival.
In a letter addressed to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the Olympians complained that the organizers had ignored them during the festival. Not a single executive committee, which was formed for the event of hockey, was summoned. Instead some persons having vested interest later got the control as the great Olympians received a cold shoulder.They said the idea of the organizing the youth festival was good to promote sport, but vested interested people had made it less fruitful.
They also said in the letter that all hockey organizers under the supervision of the Olympians worked day and night from union to division level without any monetary benefit.
“These negative people are damaging you, your party, Punjab and Pakistan. They should be stopped and all related Olympians, legends, stars of Pakistan who are doing professional work with no personal interest should be promoted. Please take serious notice to sort it out and take best possible step,” the letter said
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The city also hosted 2nd Asia Cup Kabaddi this week at the Punjab Stadium. The event could not attract a large number of people. The only two strong teams of the event were India and Pakistan while rest of the teams like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Iran are yet to improve their skills for international competition. Iran, however, showed some potential to emerge as strong contender in future.