A two-day stunning tent pegging competition was held at District Complex ground lasting.
Gondal Friends Club Sohawa Bolani arranged the event. Five hundred horsemen from Mandi Bahauddin, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Jhang, Chiniot, Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Khushab, Sahiwal, Islamabad and Pakpatten districts including Pak Rangers Academy team led by Commandant Col Kamal Khan participated in the competition.
First day, single man completion was held. Mounted horsemen riding at gallop and using a lance came after each other and pierced tent pegs (symbolic ground targets) and carried them away, waiving in the air.
Second day the teams/clubs organized their horsemen in squadrons of four and eight to play the game. Coming four mounted horsemen followed by eight mounted horsemen ridding at gallop parallel to each other and then striking the target with their lances to pierce, thrilled the audience and received big applause.
In individual competition first position was won by Ch Farhat Gujar of Gujrat where as second and third positions went to Syed Hussain of Jhang and Mazhar Iqbal Gondal Kammenka of Mandi Bahauddin.
In squadrons competition Fayez Gondal team captured first position while Raja Tahawar Kiani of Jhelum and
Sajid Shah of Mandi Bahauddin teams were placed at second and third positions respectively. Mansha Gondal of Sohawa Bolani, who was the chief guest awarded trophies to the winners of positions.
Speaking at the occasion, the chief guest appreciated the horsemen for showing good game. He said that tent pegging was twenty five hundred years old Indian game that was practiced by warriors to mount predawn raid on an enemy camp, using game’s skills to severe or uproot tent pegs, thus collapsing the tents on their sleeping occupants and sowing havoc in the camp.
Mounted horsemen also used lance on battlefields to stab the highly sensitive flesh behind an elephant’s toenail enemy elephants that caused the enemy elephant to rear, unseat his mahout, and possible run amok, breaking ranks and trampling infantry, at their rear to turn them violent and trample opposite forces.
He urged government to promote this native game instead of cricket game that was reduced to nothing except a source of making money by professional players, using all fair and unfair means. He also asked the government
to take up a case to include this tent pegging in the next World Olympics. Before start of the event, teams of all participant clubs entered the ground with different uniforms wearing turbans of their respective club colors. The teams were led by persons beating drums and playing local music instruments to a place opposite the main stage
for recording particulars of the riders and horses.
The ground was thronged by spectators including guests namely Tariq Tarar MNA, Haji Imtiaz ex-district naib nazim, Muhammad Khan Bhatti, Pir Shanawer Sultan of Hajka Sharif, Sargodha and Malik Nawab Ata Muhammad of Fateh Jang.
Stunning tent pegging competition concluded
