Sunday, 26 June 2016
The
Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) celebrated the Olympic Day by organising three
matches under lights here at the National Hockey Stadium on Thursday night.
President
of the Pakistan Olympic Association retired Lt General Syed Arif Hasan was the
chief guest on the occasion.
The
first match was held between two teams comprising young school girls from RAWAH
academy. The sides were named Pakistan Olympic Association and Pakistan Hockey
Federation.
The
second match was played between the Punjab Sports Board and a combined side of
coaches, umpires and technical officials involved in the ongoing five-a side
tournament at the same venue.
However,
the friendly match which evoked a lot of interest was the one staged between
Olympians XI and Media XI. Prominent Olympians, World Cup winners and no less
than five former national captains were seen in action during this match.
These
included illustrious names of Pakistan hockey such as Tahir Zaman, Waseem
Feroze, Khawaja Junaid, Usman Sheikh, Qamar Ibrahim, Kamran Ashraf, Naveed
Alam, Dr Atif Bashir, Qasim Khan, Mohammad Sarwar and Rehan Butt.
Special
gifts and souvenirs were presented to the families at the stadium by the hockey
greats who appreciated this fine gesture.
While
praising the PHF for marking the Olympic Day in such a wonderful manner, Arif
lauded the steps taken by the federation for putting the national game on the
right track so that Pakistan hockey could regain its glory.
(Dawn,
June 25th, 2016)
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