PIA, WAPDA record big wins in National Hockey

­KARACHI: Defending champions PIA and star-studded WAPDA registered big wins on the second day of the National Hockey Championships in Sukkur on Sunday.

PIA, who have won the national championship for three years, crushed PTV by 7-2. Pakistan’s former captain Haseem Khan showed his experience, smashing the defence of PTV and scoring four goals.

In the second match, WAPDA defeated Air Force by 9-0. The winning team comprised some of the best players of the country. Air Force had no answer to the experienced players of WAPDA. Asad Bashir scored two goals.

The matches between the provincial sides were closely-fought affairs.KP defeated hosts Sindh 2-1 after a nail-biting encounter. Adeel Zaman and Naveed Iqbal scored for the winners. Punjab had to struggle hard to overcome Islamabad 1-0. Ahmer Ali netted the only goal of the match.

In the fifth match, SSGC defeated Railways 4-0. Mubashir and Shan scored one goal each for the winners.On Saturday, opposition leader in the National Assembly (NA) Khursheed Shah announced that a cleanliness machine for the newly laid synthetic turf would be provided by the Sindh government for the venue of the championship.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Shah congratulated the PHF for organising the national championship in Sukkur and expressed his hope that this process would continue. He said that a number of cities in Sindh now had the facilities of synthetic turf.

Shah said that an international-level sports complex was being developed near Sukkur which would have facilities for a large number of sports.

PHF president Brig (rtd) Khalid Khokhar vowed that they would organise more national and provincial-level events in Sukkur and those parts of Sindh where turfs have been laid. He said that earlier this month Pakistan’s first school-level national championship had been organised in Badin.