District East clinch Jinnah Day Hockey Title

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It was a treat to watch the final of the Jinnah Day All-Karachi Inter-district Hockey Tournament as curtains fell on the 12-day event at the KHA Sports Complex recently under floodlights with District East winning top honours by recording a solitary goal victory over District Malir.

The final watched by a packed house including former Test Captain Younus Khan, Olympian Hanif khan, Nasir Ali and Iftikhar Syed.

According to KHA Secretary Haider Hussain, who is also Coordinator of PHF, the event was organized under the PHF Domestic Hockey Development Vision.

Haider, who was instrumental in organizing the event, paid compliments to Topcity-1 owner Kanwar Moeez Khan for coming forward and contributing his share for reviving the game.

For Dist. East team, Naushad Ali scored the all-important goal in the dying moments of the keenly contested title clash.

It was indeed a good effort of Karachi Hockey Association (KHA), Sindh Rangers and sponsors Topcity-1 who contributed their share to revive the national game at the grassroots level as it has witnessed a slump for well over a decade.

District East, who are also reigning Sindh Inter-district champions, received winning purse of Rs0.6 million and a trophy while the runners-up fetched Rs0.3 million.

Abdul Wahab of District West won the best player of the tournament award while Abdul Rafay and Nouman Khanzada, both from District East, won best goalkeeper and top scorer award respectively. All three were presented with brand new motorcycles.

The best player of the final award went to Naushad Ali.

DG Rangers Sindh Maj Gen Iftikhar Hassan Chau­dhary, who witnessed the final for some time, gave away the prizes along with other dignitaries.

As many as 10 teams, seven belonging to city districts namely East, West, Central, Malir, Korangi, Kemari, South and three guest teams Interior Sindh, Sindh Rangers and V Corps participated in the 12-days competition.

The Sponsor doled out record over Rs 10 million in cash in kind in the event which created history of sorts at a Domestic event.

Over 200 players featured in the event during which 23 matches were organized.

All Man of the Match were presented with cash award of Rs 5000 thousand each.

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