U-16 athletics, volleyball and hockey camps conclude

LAHORE: Sports Board Punjab’s athletics, volleyball and hockey U-16 Coaching Camps were completed at Lahore, Sialkot and Gojra respectively on Friday.

It may be recalled here that four U-16 coaching camps - mat-wrestling (Lahore), powerlifting, weightlifting (Gujranwala) and kabaddi (Faisalabad) were completed on January 19, 2019. Punjab Minister for Special Education Ch Akhlaq and DG Sports Punjab Nadeem Sarwar were guests of honour at the closing ceremony of volleyball coaching camp at Sialkot. DSO Sialkot Imran Butt and a large number of young players were also present on this occasion.

Addressing the closing ceremony, Ch Akhlaq said the U-16 coaching camps are definitely a revolutionary step to find potential youngsters from across the province. Appreciating SBP’s 7-Game U-16 coaching camps, Ch Akhlaq said: “Punjab province will get long-lasting benefits from U-16 coaching camps,” he added.

DG Sports Punjab Nadeem Sarwar, on this occasion said the young generation is an asset of the country and no nation can make progress without the active participation of talented youngsters. “Sports Board Punjab, under the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, launched athletics, mat-wrestling, hockey, powerlifting, weightlifting, kabaddi and volleyball U-16 Coaching and Training Camps at Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Gojra to locate fresh talent at grassroots level,” he added. DG Sports Punjab further said that Sports Board Punjab will launch seven new camps from April at different venues to give sufficient chance to players of other popular games.

The closing ceremony of athletics coaching camp was held at Punjab Stadium, Nishtar Park Sports Complex. The guests of honour Director Special Initiative Anees Sheikh and Director Sports Hafeez Bhatti distributed cash prizes and shirts among camp trainees. MPA Bilal Asghar Wariach was the chief guest at hockey coaching camp closing ceremony at Gojra. DSO Gojra Tariq Nazir, DSO TT Singh Ata ur Rehman, Olympian Shahbaz Junior, Ateeq Arshad, Malik Irfan, Irfan Mehmood, Iqbal Gujjar and Khawar Javed were also present on this occasion.