Sports fest begins at Thapar University

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Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 17

Urja, a national-level sports festival of Thapar University began today with colourful events. More than 20 institutes from all over the country are participating in the event.

Organised on the theme of ‘Let us play for a drug-free world’, the three-day event will witness around 500 students vying for top honours in eight sporting events including athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, football, lawn tennis, table tennis and volleyball.

Teams from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh; Chitkara University, Baddi and Rajpura; NIT, Kurukshetra; NIT, Jalandhar; University College of Engineering (UCOE), Punjabi University, Patiala; Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak; Maharshi Markandeshwar University, Mullana; LPU, Jalandhar; NSIT, Delhi; SLIET, Longowal; ITM, Gurgaon; ACIET, Amritsar and IMS, Ghaziabad are among those participating in the tournament.

Rehan Poncha, an Arjuna awardee and a five-time national swimming record holder, delivered a motivational lecture to the participants in the auditorium as a build-up to the opening ceremony.

The closing ceremony of Urja will be organised on the evening of April 20, where Arjuna awardee and Commonwealth Games gold medallist in boxing Akhil Kumar will be the chief guest.