Daily Times

LAHORE: In the first Defence Housing Authority Under-18 Gold Cup Hockey Tournament at Lahore’s Manzoorul Hassan Hockey Stadium, four leading hockey academies of Lahore participated. After the single league, Dar Academy had finished first followed by Rana Zaheer, Khawaja Junaid and Tariq Butt Academies. On Monday, Dar Academy and Rana Zaheer Academy again met in the final. Rana Zaheer Academy reversed the result of the league match. They won the final 2-1, having lost by the same score the day before. The highly entertaining final saw end to end hockey with both the sides getting open play chances and penalty corners. Dar Academy went ahead. Basharat showing fine opportunism scored in the 23rd minute. Rana Zaheer Academy was definitely the better side in the second half. After wasting a number of chances, they equalized in the 48th minute through a penalty stroke taken by Abdul Qayyum. Hardly a minute had passed when the winning goal came. A fine move by left was given the finishing touches by Ammad from the top of the circle. Worth mentioning that Rana Zaheer Academy and Dar Academy are conveyor belt of hockey talent for Pakistan’s national and age group teams for last many years. Earlier in the 3rd position playoff, Khawaja Junaid Academy demolished Tariq Butt Academy 9-1. First, second, third and fourth position holders got richer by Rupees 100,000, 75,000, 50,000 and 25,000 respectively. A number of Pakistan hockey’s big names were present including Olympic gold medalists Dr Tariq Aziz and Tauqeer Dar as well as World Cup winners Lt Col (r) Saeed Khan and Manzoorul Hassan.