Sahiwal clinch kabaddi title

LAHORE: Sahiwal division became Punjab under-16 kabaddi champion in thrilling fashion when they snatched a narrow one-point victory against strong Faisalabad team in the final of SBP Annual Sports Calendar second phase kabaddi event at Punjab Stadium on Thursday.

Rana Sarwar, Secretary General, Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF), distributed prizes at the closing ceremony. The young players were quite excited at the prize distribution ceremony and had group photographs with the guests of honour on this occasion. The raiders and stoppers of Sahiwal and Faisalabad demonstrated wonderful exhibition of kabaddi skills but the boys from Sahiwal took the decisive narrow lead in end and captured the coveted title with the score of 35-34.

Earlier, in the first semifinal, Faisalabad demolished Gujranwala by a big margin of 30-12 while Sahiwal outplayed Sargodha by 28-23 in the second semifinal without much trouble.

Lahore division emerged title winners in Annual Sports Calendar second phase boys’ and girls’ cricket events on the basis of better run rate. The organizing committee decided the winners, runners up and other positions on the basis of points and net run rate of the participating teams after several washed out matches.

In boys’ cricket event, Lahore team were declared triumphant for their six points and 2.25 run rate, higher than all participating teams. Bahawalpur, the runners up team, capped the event with five points and 1.65 run rate followed by Sahiwal with five points and 1.43 run rate. The prize distribution ceremony of boys’ cricket event was held at LCCA ground where Director Sports Hafeez Bhatti distributed prizes among the top position holders.

In girls’ cricket event, Lahore team were adjudged title winners due to their better net run rate of 10.52. Faisalabad girls took second spot while third position went to Multan division girls. The prize distribution ceremony of girls’ cricket event was held at Lahore College for Women University ground. DG Sports Punjab Nadeem Sarwar, on Thursday, congratulated all the title winning teams of SBP Annual Sports Calendar second phase competitions. He also hailed the performance of runners-up teams and other position holders.