Exhibiting great fighting spirit Lahore division football team defeated strong Faisalabad team by a narrow margin of 2-1 to win Rising Punjab Games 2024 football title at the Punjab Stadium on Saturday.
In Rising Punjab Games Badminton Championship, Ghazala Siddique of Sargodha clinched the Women’s Singles title while the Men’s Singles title went to Gujranwala’s Anjum Bashir at Nishtar Park Sports Complex Gymnasium Hall on the same day.
Director General Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail was the chief guest at the final competitions of Rising Punjab Games Football and Badminton Championships. He witnessed thrilling competitions and appreciated the fighting game skills of young badminton players. The finalist teams and officials also had group photographs with DG Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail.
Director Sports Yasmeen Akhtar, Director Youth Affairs Rana Nadeem Anjum, Assistant Director Zarina Waqar, District Sports Officer Lahore Tanveer Shah, Chief Sports Consultant Hafeez Bhatti, Rauf Bajwa, SBP PRO Abdul Rauf and other officials were also present on this occasion.
Director Sports Yasmeen Akhtar, Director Youth Affairs/Divisional Sports Officer Lahore Rana Nadeem Anjum, Divisional Sports Officer Faisalabad Tariq Nazir and Divisional Sports Officer DG Khan Rana Hammad distributed trophies and medals among the players.
It is worth mentioning that Rising Punjab Games are being organized as the first sports event of Sports Board Punjab’s revolutionary Annual Sports Calendar Programme.
Talking to media on this occasion, Director General Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail said that the competitions of Rising Punjab Games are being conducted quite successfully. “So far we have organized events of four games – hockey, volleyball, football and badminton under the banner of Rising Punjab Games. We will organize Spring Games and Summer Games after competing Winter Games under the umbrella of Rising Punjab Games”.
Director General Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail said that Rising Punjab Games is the first event under SBP’s Annual Sports Calendar Programme. “All the participating players have been selected through merit-based trials. New talent is emerging from Rising Punjab Games. The best arrangements have been made for conducting all the competitions of Rising Punjab Games”.
Director General Sports Punjab Dr Asif Tufail further said Sports Board Punjab is organizing all sports events in a systematic manner under a compact sports development plan. “All possible measures are being taken for the development of healthy activities across the province. The top performing players of Rising Punjab Games are given Rs 70,000, Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 stipends per month in three categories Diamond, Gold and Silver”.
In Rising Punjab Games Football event, the triumphant team was given a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh while the runners up team pocketed Rs 10 lakh. In the badminton Team Event, the winning team was given a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh while the runner up was awarded Rs one lakh cash prize.
In the Rising Punjab Games Football event final, Faisalabad opened their account immediately after the starting whistle when Hassan scored a beautiful goal in the first minute. Lahore division’s Asad leveled the score in 12th minute but after that both teams made several attempts to take lead in the next half an hour game but failed.
However, Lahore’s Sufiyan scored the title decider in 49th minute after a beautiful field effort and won the final match by a narrow margin of 2-1.
In the Rising Punjab Games Badminton event, Anjum Bashir of Gujranwala bounced back after losing the first set at 19-21. However, he defeated Muqeet Tahir of Faisalabad in the next two sets by 21-19 and 21-12 to clinch the Men's Singles title.
In Women’s Singles title decider, Ghazala Siddique of Sargodha dominated the final match right from the beginning and thrashed her opponent Umam Usman of Bahawalpur in straight sets by 21-15, 21-10.