National Hockey Championship begins in Sukkur

KARACHI: The 64th National Hockey Championship commenced at the newly-laid astroturf in Sukkur on Saturday. The leader of opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah inaugurated the tournament.

The opening ceremony was underway at the ground in floodlights till the filing of this report. Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) president Brigadier (retd.) Khalid Khokhar and secretary Shahbaz Ahmed were also present.

Earlier, four matches were played on the opening day. Gilgit-Baltistan defeated FATA 3-2, Police beat Port Qasim 2-1, SNGPL hammered HEC by 5-2, while the game between Army and Customs ended in a 1-1 draw.

A thrilling contest was witnessed between Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA. Abid and Imtiaz scored the goals for the winning team. Samiullah and Khushal netted each for FATA.

In the other match, Imran Azhar and Arshad Ali scored a goal each for Police, while Wasif Raza scored the lone goal for Port Qasim.

Meanwhile, SNGPL thrashed HEC in a one-sided match. Rana Waheed scored a brace as Zahidullah, Dawood and Mohammad Asad netted once for SNGPL. Mohammad Boota and Asher Tariq were the goal-scorers for HEC.

The match between Army and Customs ended in a draw as none of the teams could manage to score twice. Abdul Jabbar netted for Army, while Salman Hussain scored for Customs.