National Women Hockey C’ship begins

LAHORE: 30th National Women Hockey Championship started at the National Hockey Stadium on Monday. Eleven teams have been divided into two pools. Pool ‘A’ has Wapda, Punjab (C), Sindh (C), Balochistan, Punjab (W) and Pool B comprises Railways, Army, HEC, Islamabad, KP and Sindh (W).

Four matches were played on the opening day. Pakistan Railways, Wapda, Punjab Whites and Pakistan Army fashioned out huge margin victories. Railways scored the biggest win of the day giving a hockey lesson to Sindh Whites with a 16-0 thrashing. Railways kept Sindh under persistent pressure with the addition of goals one after the other and dominated with lively field attacks and combined moves.

It was a luckless day for the teams from Sindh, as Sindh Colours massive suffered 0-10 defeat at the hands of strong Wapda in another one sided affair. Wapda were the master of the situation in the encounter adding goals at their will and Sindh did nothing but helplessly conceded the volley of the goals in front of a lively colourful crowd. Punjab Whites outplayed Balochistan 5-0 enjoying all time supremacy against their opponents which lacked basics of the game. In another dull match Army proved too good for KPK with a big 12-0 victory. Army team exhibited aggressive play with the help of both right and left flanks as mid field powered their attacks with timely feeding of passes. Punjab Minister of Sports Rai Taimoor Bhatti was the chief guest at the opening ceremony. He was accompanied by DG Sports Punjab Nadeem Sarwar, Secretary PHF Shahbaz Ahmad and GM PHF Women Wing Ms Tanzeela Cheema, who is also the organising secretary of the event.

On the opening day, the eleven participating teams did a smart march past led by the drum band of girls from Crescent Model Higher Secondary School. These girls later also performed captivating aerobics.

In his media talk, Punjab Sports Minister Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti said the holding of National Senior Women Hockey Championship will prove to be very beneficial for the promotion of hockey among Pakistan females. “The payers from all parts of country are featuring in this grand event and we are quite upbeat that Pakistan women hockey will get several talented female hockey players after the championship,” he added. Replying a question, Bhatti said Punjab govt with the collaboration of Higher Education Commission (HEC) is going to build sports academy in Govt Boys College Gulberg. “Potential students of all leading universities, colleges and schools of the province will be admitted and trained in this academy under the supervision of expert coaches”.

Answering a question, Bhatti said Punjab govt is fully focusing on improving the sports infrastructure in the province. “Annual Sports Calendar activities have already started throughout the province in a bid to involve talented young players of the province in sports events. We are collecting data of talented players from all parts of the province. After Annual Sports Calendar, shining players will be trained under the supervision of qualified coaches”. “We are also planning to organize different sports leagues in which talented players of Annual Sports Calendar will exhibit their potential. We are also going to hold Punjab Games in near future”.