Lahore, Pakistan, March 30, 2023: The Pakistan Olympic Association has announced the final sports programme for the 34th National Games to be held from May 15-23 in Quetta.
In a letter dated March 29 and copied to POA President Lt. Gen. (retd) Syed Arif Hasan and other senior sports officials, the POA Secretary General Muhammad Khalid Mahmood revealed that there will be 31 medal sports plus four demonstration sports at the National Games in Quetta, a city located in northern Balochistan near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The sports programme was decided after a discussion of all stakeholders at a meeting held on March 6 in Lahore. The meeting was chaired by POA Vice President Shaukat Javed, and included the Balochistan Sports Secretary and Director General of Balochistan Sports Board.
The 31 medal sports are: archery, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, cycling, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, karate, rugby, rowing, sailing, shooting, squash, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, tug-of-war, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
Of the 31 sports, 24 are for both male and female athletes, while six are only for men – baseball, bodybuilding, gymnastics, kabaddi, tug-of-war and wrestling. The softball discipline will only be for women.
Fencing for both men and women is also on the cards but medals won in the competition will not count for the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy awarded to the overall winner. The final events of individual sports disciplines will be circulated shortly.
There will also be four demonstration sports – canoe and kayak, futsal, throwball and women’s cricket.
The National Games will take place after a break of four years. At the last Games in Peshawar in 2019, the Pakistan Army won the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy with 150 gold, 134 silver and 96 bronze medals.
