The participation in the Neighbourhood and Village level has crossed half a million mark in just four days since the start of the Punjab Youth and Sports Festival at various centres of the province .
In Lahore alone around 50,000 youngsters took part in 30 events contested today, Wednesday among the Sports and Youth Development Councils while the figure of participation in different events in other 36 districts of the province surpassed 500,000 mark.
One of the major activities of the Neighbourhood and Village level was witnessed at Iqbal Park Sports Complex where Chief Organizer PYF Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan and Malik Riaz played a badminton match besides displaying their prowess in a contest of arm wrestling. Director General Sports Board and Youth Affairs Punjab Usman Anwar was also present on the occasion. They also met the players of different indoor events including badminton, volleyball, tug of war.
Cricket and some of the athletics events were also conducted on the outer grounds of the complex. In athletics, competitions were also held in 100, 800 and 400 metres races and shot put.
Speaking on the occasion Rana Mashhood pointed out that the purpose of holding the Festival is to give direction to the youth of the
country helping them to achieve their set goals of life.
In some of the events held in the provincial metropolis, UC 96 block 1 beat Basti Saidan Shah in badminton as in doubles event Mohamamd Ali and Hiader beat Raza and Adeel 20-10.
In billiard at block 3 beat Khawaja Bahari colony. There Mohammad Nawaz beat Rohail and Nafa Shah beat Rizwan. In tug of war, block 5 beat White House Lane 2-0. In volleyball A team of Sikandar Road Wapda Colony beat B team 25-16.
In cricket UC 89 cricket competitions, Shah XI beat Mutahir XI and Tahir XI. Rehaman XI beat Haji XI, Bilal Xi beat Sehwan XI and Mashud Xi defeated GH XI. Chaudhary Najam XI beat Saint Mary Colony Gulberg III by six wickets in the UC 95 while in a volleyball match of the same UC, Block no 8 beat F Blocj Gulberg III.
In tug of war contest Block no 6 defeated D block 2-0 in the same UC and in arm wrestling Block no 1 beat Catchi Abadi FC College with Hafiz Waqas Azam winning over Qasin Rafaqat in 60 kg class 2-1, Tauqir Hussain beat Rizwan Akran in 80 kg weight group 2-0 and Imran Khan won over Saghir Hussain 2-0 in 90 kg weight.
In badminton competitions Block 2 beat Canal Park 3-2. Mohammad Salman and Mohammad Ali Naqvi beat Shoaib and Arslan 20-15. Ali Zareen and Mohammad Ali moved past Hasan Khalid and Adnan Sharafat 20-18 while in singles Imran Imtiaz beat Hamid Rauf 20-18, Mohammad Farooq beat Shahzad Mahmood 20-15 and Faizal Javed beat Mohammad Shahid Mahmood20-19.
Meanwhile, a total of nine towns of Lahore and four districts, 3195 participated from 303 blocks of 50 UCs. And there turned out to be 1253 winners in 49 events.
In Lahore alone 16 UCs had competitions among 218 blocks and with a mass participation of 2146 in 30 events there were 1069 winners.
Last day, throughout the province 118936 youngsters participated in different events and out of those 36991were declared the winners. In all the tehsils of 36 districts of Punjab 1334 Sports and Youth Development Councils competitions took place among 7020 blocks in 371 events. In four districts of Rawalpindi division, 21 tehsils got involved in 35 events. A total of 3532 youngsters of different ages took part in all the nine events of sports and general cetagory and 1105 were the winners. In Rawalpindi city alone 123 participated in just two events held in three USc and among 16 blocks. Even in Murree competitions of tug or war, volleyball and qirat were held in 24 blocks of five UCs where 30 youngsters were declared the winners out of 150 participants.
In Jhelum district 471participated in 10 events at 21 localities and among the 13 S&YDCs and from among those 111 took limelight.
Sargodha division has a total participation of 6091 in 36 events from 109 UCs that got involved 220 blocks in 36 events. Similarly, 16528 youngsters participated in 60 events in238 union councils of Gujranwala Division. These competitions were held among 16633 blocks of 20 tehsils. In Gujranwala city alone 20 UCs’ 216 blocks participted in four events with the participation of around 2106 and 28 got through. In Sialkot 4840 persons competed in 13 events and 1701 were the winners. Likewise at Gujrat, 47 UCs played in 8 events and out of the competitions among 4177 participants of 253 blocks 300 were the winners.
Similarly, interesting and nail-biting competitions were witnessed at four districts of Faisalabad where from competitions among 46128 youngsters of 309 UCs there were 24145 who earned fame. Sahiwal’s 45 UCs have eight competitions and 234 won from 942. At Multan there were 173 UCs where competitions were held in between 703 blocks in 49 events and 991 returned smiling from among 5329. At Balawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan there was mass 37191 participation and 462 were the winners from 1460 UCs and 7256 blocks.