Olympics of Doaba kickstarts

The 28th Purewal Games of Hakimpur, known as the Olympics of Doaba, began today. The games that have been organised by the Purewal brothers and Purewal Sports Club for the last three decades, started at the Niranjan Singh Memorial Stadium, Jagatpur-Hakimpur. It includes kabaddi, wrestling and athletics.

Due to rain, wrestling competitions were shifted from Jagatpur to the indoor multipurpose hall of Amardeep Shergill Memorial College, Mukandpur. Competitions were held for the titles of Punjab Kumar, Satar-e-Hind and Mahabharat Kumari in wrestling in the indoor hall.

Wrestlers from different parts of India as well as Canada and Iran have come for the seven wrestling titles with prizes of lakhs of rupees. Due to rain, it was decided to postpone the all-open kabaddi competition and hold it later, the date of which will be announced later.

The games were inaugurated by Punjab Warehouse Corporation Chairman and MLA from Banga Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi.

Sukhi said the contribution made by the Purewal family in the field of sports for a long time is commendable. "With these efforts, Punjab will again become the number one state in sports in the country," he said.

Chief organiser of the games Gurjit Singh Purewal said the winners would be honoured with trophies in addition to cash prizes worth lakhs of rupees.

Earlier, in the morning session, the Under-15, 17 and 21 competitions in Kabaddi started at Jagatpur Stadium. In athletics, 100 metres, 400 metres, 800 metres and 1500 metres competitions were held.