LAHORE - The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) players, represented the country in 12th South Asian Games (SAG) held in India, brought Pakistan one step up on third position by wining 44 percent of overall in medal tally of 106.
Previously Pakistan was at the fourth position in 11th SAF Games. Wapda players include FESCO, GEPCO, LESCO, MEPCO, PESCO, QESCO and NTDC who continued to bring laurels for their country in 18 sports disciplines.
Wapda players won five gold medals in squash, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu out of 12 and also 19 silver medals out of 37 and 21 bronze medals out of 57 got by Pakistan in 12th South Asian Games. Besides this, 66 men and 41 women players of Wapda Sports Board participated in the games to represent the country. Wapda Sports Board also contributed 26 percent of the officials required for the games.
Wapda chairman expressed his satisfaction on the individual and team performance and hoped that they would continue to bring laurels for their country in the future as well. He announced that the medal winners would get promotions and cash awards as per WSP incentive policy to further improve their performance. They will also be honored by the Wapda authority. “Wapda Sports Board provides long term employment as well as coaching, training and practice facilities in its Sports Complex at Lahore, which includes an Olympic-size heated pool and currently the 1870 sports men and women affiliated with WAPDA Sports Board, makes it the largest employer of sportsmen hired on sports basis. It has men and women teams and also provides monthly stipends and its facilities to young girls and boys excelling in sports under Wapda Endowment Fund for Sports in schemes like Wapda Athletic Colts, etc,” he added.
“Similarly, Wapda Sports Board has introduced recurring programmes for bringing focus on fitness and fielding as well as a T12 School Cricket format which promotes fielding and penalizes bad fielding, recently inaugurated by Chairman PCB and much appreciated by the Honorable Federal Minister Inter Provincial Coordination at its concluding ceremony,” he asserted.
“If other departments will focus on sports and sportsmen for their improvement as a social responsibility, the ultimate result will come in top position during international competitions. For this purpose, Wapda Sports Board intends to request the Federal Sports Ministry and Pakistan Sports Board to lay out fresh plan learning from our recent SAF games experience, to achieve shared understanding on further improving the performance in future international competitions,” WAPDA chairman concluded.