SRINAGAR: After the mega water sports activities conducted in Dal Lake yesterday, the sports activities to commemorate the G-20 event continued in various play fields of J&K as players thronged the venues from dawn to late at night.
The competitions were organized by the J&K Sports Council and all the sports facilities remained abuzz with activities. The water sports event in which more than a hundred players participated in the disciplines of Canoe Sprint, Canoe Slalom, Rowing, and Water-Skiing events continued to receive accolades from sports buffs.
Water Sports is one of the main fortes of J&K Sports as J&K players have emerged as the force to reckon with claiming around a hundred medals in national championships played across the country.
A cricket match to commemorate the foreign delegates was also played in Srinagar’s downtown. The match was played under lights between Gani Reds XI and Gani Blues XI in the Gani Memorial Stadium Srinagar. The toss was won by Gani Reds XI, who after choosing to bat scored 186 runs in their allotted quota of 20 overs.
Meanwhile, a Taekwondo Championship was held at Bakshi Stadium Srinagar in which more than 110 athletes participated in competitions for different age groups.
In the meantime, the para-archer Sheetal Devi who hails from Mughalmaidan area of Kishtwar came up with flying colors in the compound women’s open event of the Para Archery World Ranking Event by bagging a silver medal. Similarly, Harvinder Singh who is the Sports Authority of India’s TOPS scheme athlete bagged bronze in the recurve open event.
Secretary Youth Services and Sports Sarmad Hafeez and Secretary Sports Council Nuzhat Gull congratulated both the medalists.
In yet another cricket match played between trainees of Sports Council Cricket Academy and Valiant XI, the former trounced their opponents by a huge margin of 193 runs in what turned out to be a one-sided affair.
Batting first, Sports Council Cricket Academy amassed 248 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in their allotted quota of 20 overs. Noumaan with his personal score of 93 runs spending only 51 balls was the top scorer for the team while Arsalan’s assault in the late order scoring 56 runs in just 20 balls was the second-best aggregate for the team while Abid smashed 47 runs conceding only 19 balls. Irfan, who took 2 wickets from 3 overs, was the only saving grace from Valiant XI’s bowling department.
Chasing a mammoth total, the innings of Valiant XI folded like a pack of cards and the team could only manage to score 55 runs and were bundled out within 10 overs. Like bowling, Irfan was the saving grace for the batting department of Valiant XI as well scoring 25 unbeaten runs, For Sports Council Cricket Academy Omer and Abid claimed 4 wickets each.
Similar events to mark the celebration of the G-20 summit were organized in the Jammu division as well.
Among the other events 3 and 5-kilometer racing and walking competitions were organized for women of various age categories besides a 60- and 80-meter sprint was organized for U-10 and U-14 both boys as well as girls.
In the 3 kilometers event, Giya Manhas, Yashwani, and Diamond secured first, second and third positions respectively while in the 5kms walk Jyoti Singh, Soniya Jain and Sheetal bagged the first three positions in ascending order respectively.
More than 230 participants along with 23 officials and a huge gathering of spectators were part of the event. More competitions in many other games were in progress when the report was being filed.
