Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Balbir Singh today inaugurated the district level games being organized in Patiala under ‘Khedan Watan Punjab Diyan-4’. A total of 29 games are being organized in the first phase from September 27 to 30 and in the second phase from October 1 to 4. During the sports competitions being organized, a large number of players from the age group of 14 to 70 years are participating with full enthusiasm and zeal and the players showed their mettle in the competitions held in 15 games today. On this occasion, Mayor Municipal Corporation Kundan Gogia, Neelkant Chairman Sports Welfare Block Patiala, Bhagwan Das Juneja and Parminder Bhalwan were also present along with the Health Minister.
Inaugurating it at the Polo Ground here, Health Minister Dr. Balbir Singh said that the ‘Khedan Watan Punjab Diyan’ initiative launched by the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann to wean the youth of the state away from drugs and to hone their sports talent has emerged as a successful initiative.
Dr. Balbir Singh said that the Punjab government is paying special attention to strengthening the infrastructure of sports, providing better facilities to the players and providing them with suitable opportunities to showcase their talent at the state and national level. He said that the youth of Punjab is the important strength of the state and the government is giving special priority to sports to give a positive direction to the energy of the youth.
During the inauguration of the district level games by the Sports Department, Patiala, on the first day, athletics, kabaddi circle style, volleyball shooting, handball, Gatka, badminton, lawn tennis, table tennis, swimming, roller skating, chess, archery, kick boxing and tennis ball cricket games were organized in different age groups and at different locations.
Giving information about these games, District Sports Officer, Navjot Singh Dhaliwal said that in the Kabaddi Circle Style age group under-14 boys, the team of Patran won the first place and the team of Samana won the second place. In the table tennis men’s age group 61-70, Inderjit Singh won the first place, Amarjot Singh won the second place, Amarjit Singh and Balbir Gupta won the third place. In the women’s age group 51-60, Mamta Pathe won the first place and Shabharika won the second place. In the women’s age group 41-50, Suman won the first place and Aarti won the second place. Similarly, in the senior girls’ age group 21-30, Kumari Neha won the first place, Diksha won the second place, Neha and Lovepreet won the third place.
DSO further informed that in Athletics 3000 meters under-17 boys, Priyashu won first place, Srikanth won second place and Gurdeep Singh won third place. In 600 meters under-14 girls, Anshika won first place, Shaganpreet Kaur won second place and Anshul won third place. In 400 meters under-17 girls, Aruhi won first place, Mahi won second place and Sukhpreet Kaur won third place. In Volleyball Shooting under-17 boys, Samana team won by defeating Nabha team 2-0 and Patran team won by defeating Patiala team 2-0.
Apart from this, in Handball Under-14 Boys, Polo Ground team defeated Bhunarheri B team, Sanaur team defeated Rajpura and Barn team defeated Sanaur B team and achieved a great victory. In Swimming game, in the age group Under-14 Girls 100 meters free style, Harsimrat Kaur got first, Ekamjot got second and Ashleen Kaur got third place. While in the Under-14 Boys 50 meters back stroke, Yuvraj Singh got first, Navnoor Singh got second and Gurnoor Singh got third place.