Workers participate in the tug-of-war at Asian Town yesterday.
Braving rain and windy weather, hundreds of workers ventured out to participate in National Sport Day activities at Asian Town yesterday.
Over 1,000 workers from different nationalities participated in various sport events organised by Ibn Ajyan, the management of Asian Town and Labour City Projects in collaboration with Indian and Filipino communities.
Women also took part in the activities which included a volleyball match. The winning teams and players were given trophies and attractive gifts. Indian Ambassador P Kumaran was present to watch an exciting tug-of-war contest. At the end of the match, he handed over trophies and gifts to the winning teams and players.
“The National Sport Day activities began with fun-run at Asian Town by 8:30am,” an official from Ibn Ajyan told The Peninsula. “More than 1,000 people including workers, players, women and children participated the fun-race. The activities were delayed about an hour in the morning due to rain. Only the cricket match was cancelled due to rain. All other activities took place smoothly,” said the official.
The tug-of-war contest was organised by Ibn Ajyan in collaboration with Indian Cultural Center (ICC). QIA emerged winners in the tug-of-war and Mr GYM was the runners up.
Filipino community participated in the volleyball and basketball matches. Eight teams played basketball match.
Four women's teams participated in the volleyball match.
The matches concluded by 3 pm. There was a big crowd of spectators at all the matches.
The tea stall also pulled huge crowds.
Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) set up a blood donation camp near the venue. Seventy-two workers donated blood in the camp that was open from 10am to 3pm yesterday.
A painting competition for kids was also held.
“There is big crowd, people are participating with great energy and enthusiasm," M S Bukhari, a prominent Indian community leader told The Peninsula. “The most important thing is motivation and direction towards sports and enthusiasm in the people for sports. That is our purpose to bring as much number of people as possible from the Indian community to participate in such events" he added.
“We are happy to have Zafar Iqbal, a former Indian field hockey player and sport celebrity to be part of National Sport Day events” said Bukhari.
