The curtains fell on 30th National Games at Peoples Stadium Lyari on Saturday as Pakistan Army maintained their supremacy by retaining the prestigious Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz graced the glittering closing ceremony as chief guest at the conclusion of six-day sporting extravaganza, which attracted over 3000 athletes from the nook and corner of the country.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, President Pakistan Olympic Association Lieutenant General (Retd) Arif Hasan, Sindh Sports Minister and Chairman Organising Committee Qamar Mansoor, President Sindh Olympic Association Faqir Ayazuddin were prominent among those present on the occasion.
The Prime Minister presented the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy to Director Sports, Pakistan Army, Brigadier Malik Saleem Nawaz while Brigadier Najamus Saqib collected the runners-up trophy named after former Chief of POA Wajid Ali Shah on behalf of WAPDA. Shoaib Usmani Chef de mission Sindh received the Fair Play Trophy for the Province.
He presented special trophy to Kiran Khan as best athlete of the games for winning an odd dozen gold medals in swimming while Muhammad Adil got the best athlete men trophy for winning six gold in the pool. Games ended with march-past of the participating contingents and extinguishing of the torch as per Olympic tradition.
"I declare the 30th National Games close" the Prime Minister said and this marked the end of the games. Army maintained their traditional ascendancy in athletics,football, gymnastics, judo, karate, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, where they won bulk of the medals. But WAPDA offered them stiff challenge in most of the disciplines.
Navy also produced a creditable performances in boxing, kabbadi, shooting, sailing and rowing. But despite meagre talent left in presence of professionals and departmental team Punjab, NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh also made their presence felt in some disciplines.
27 disciplines including athletics, badminton, baseball, body building, boxing, cycling, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, kabbadi, judo, karate, netball, rowing, sailing, shooting, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, tug of war, volleyball, weight lifting, wrestling, Wushu were contested with two demonstration sports of canoeing and softball. Besides 11 affiliated units of POA, Azad Kashmir, Fata and Islamabad make their debut in the games on special invitation to broaden the scope of the games.
These games were spread at 20 different venues of the city which included Pakistan Sports Board Coaching Centre, Peoples Stadium, City Sports Complex, UBL Sports complex, National Sailing Centre, KPT Sports Complex, Women's Sports Complex Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Roshan Khan/Jahangir Khan Squash Complex, Sindh Sports Board Complex Nazimabad, Pakistan Navy Aquatics Club, Boat Club, Naval Shooting Range, Physical Education College and Ali Qambrani Stadium.
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