Sports Fest 2012 Draws to a Successful Close
Organised by Sports at LUMS (SLUMS), LUMS Sports Fest 2012 was one of the biggest sporting events held at the university. Almost 800 athletes from across the country took part in this 4 day sports extravaganza, from January 14 – 17, 2012. The SLUMS organisers were assisted by the Department of Sports, Wellness and Recreation (SWR) in pulling off this successful event.
Sports Fest 2012 included sports categories such as cricket, futsal, netball, basketball, tennis, table tennis and badminton. It was extremely encouraging to see many women athletes competing. Some of the most enthusiastic female teams were in the futsal, basketball and volleyball categories.
The Karachi University FC club took away the first prize, while DiyaWFC were runners-up. Third position went to LSE. The female football matches were exciting and drew larger crowds than the male football matches. In the male over-18 category for football, the top team was LSE, with Young Stars as the runners-up and CBM coming third. In the under-18 category, Edwards College, Peshawar was the winner.
FNL bagged the first prize among the male volleyball players. The runners-up were Volley 73 and LSE. The girls from FAST and UCL played the final, where FAST grabbed the top spot. LGS Defence came third.
Unfortunately, there were no female cricket teams which hopefully will not be the case next time. The male cricket teams played well, adding to the drama and surprise of the sport of cricket. LSE remained the favourite and grabbed the first prize. Private teams, Spirtives and Acines were second and third respectively. In the under-18 category for cricket, Roots DHA, Desert Eagles and BDC 1 bagged the top three positions.
Once again, there were no female tennis players. Waleed and Talha took the first and second positions respectively, while Noor Haider from UCL won the third position in the over-18 category. In the under-18 category Salman Bin Salim from Roots, Imaad Amir from GCU and Izazuddin from BDC achieved the top three positions respectively.
There were a large number of participants for badminton. Among the female over-18 category, Fariha and Arooj from Kinnaird College came in first and second. Anum from FAST-NU was third. UCP’s Hafiz Irfan came first in the over-18 badminton category, while Adil Haseeb was runner-up and GCU’s Amaar Saeed came third.
This sport drew the largest number of cheering crowds. Team 24 clinched the top spot in the female over-18 category while Beaconhouse Liberty Campus took first place in the under-18 category. Boys from Beaconhouse Defence Campus grabbed the title for the best in basketball in the under-18 male category, while Punjab University was first in the over-18 category. Enigma was the runner-up and LSE grabbed yet another award as the top third basketball over-18 team in the tournament.
A great show was put on by the young squash players, with Muntazir from Roots DHA taking the top slot in the under-18 category and Usman Ahmad of the Desert Eagles finishing as the runner-up. In the over-18 category, Saroosh Naqvi and Mamoon were the top two players.
This sport also saw quite some drama as many players won excitingly close matches. Sara Tehsin of Roots grabbed the top position in the under-18 category, while Punjab University’s Tamseela won in the over-18 category. Among the boys, LGS Johar Town’s Syed Irtiza Raza was first in the under-18, whereas GCU’s Irtiza Ali was first in the over-18 category.
The SLUMS team ensured that their participants were fully entertained at all times, even after all the action and drama of sports. The organisers had arranged a number of after sports events. There was a Chill Zone, where the participants could play Xbox, foozeball, cards or just watch TV.
LUMS Sports Fest 2012 hosted the first ever Quratulain Balouch concert. EP and Moen Jo Daro also performed and made it an unforgettable night in the history of concerts at LUMS, as the audience of a thousand plus swayed to the music. A carnival themed ‘The Wild West’ was also arranged. There were a number of food and game stalls including some fun-filled activities. Hush Puppies, one of the sponsors of Sports Fest 2012 gave away discount vouchers in lucky-draws and many other free goodies as well.
A Casino Royale-themed dinner was arranged for the closing ceremony. The chief guests at the award ceremony were Dr. Ali Khan, Patron of SLUMS; Salman Butt, General Secretary of the Punjab Athletic Association and Shehryar Ali, President of the Punjab Netball Association. Rahim, the SLUMS President; Ahmer, Convener and Alizeh Ahmed, Co-Convener, LUMS Sports Fest 2012 made some inspiring speeches. Shields and trophies were handed out to the winners.
The Lahore School of Economics took home the LUMS Sports Fest 2012 trophy for the over-18 male category and Roots School, Rawalpindi for the under-18, resulting in tremendous excitement being displayed by the winning athletes. The trophy for the overall winner among the women athletes went to LGS 1A1.