By Sohail Ali
LAHORE, Sep 13 (APP): Sports Board Punjab (SBP) Director General Adnan Arshad Aulakh has said preparations for the forthcoming First Chief Minister Punjab 5-A-Side National Women Hockey Championship are in the final stages and the event will play a significant role in popularsing the game among women across the country. He said this while presiding over an important meeting at the National Hockey Stadium, here on Monday.
Director Sports Hafeez Bhatti, Project Director PMU Nadeem Anwer and Deputy Director Chand Perveen attended the meeting, which was convened to review the arrangements for the event, being played on Sept 18-23.
The SBP DG said the championship would provide a platform for the budding female hockey players of the country to demonstrate their talent in a competitive environment. “The entire corona SOPs and protocols will be followed fully during the 6-day hockey championship.
The top performing teams and individuals will be given plenty of prizes to encourage them to participate in hockey events with great amount of spirit and passion.”
He said the event is a step forward for promotion of hockey among young generation. He directed all the 13 administrative committees to speed up their preparations for holding of the competition in a smooth way.
Adnan Aulakh said 14 teams would participate in the championship. Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will field two teams each in the tournament while Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Azad Kashmir, Army, HEC, Wapda and Railways will send one team each for the grand hockey event.
“The Sports Board Punjab will provide top standard facilities to all the participating teams during the mega event,” he added.
The SBP DG said the training camp of Punjab’s 37 female players is underway for the preparation of First Chief Minister Punjab 5-A-Side National Women Hockey Championship.
“Expert coaches and trainers are imparting training to all participants of training camp at National Hockey Stadium with special focus being given to ball control, dodging, goal-scoring and physical fitness of the players”.
