Prime Minister Youth Talent Hunt Girls Badminton League got underway here at Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex Charsadda under the aegis of the Directorate of Sports Kohat University of Information Technology on Thursday.

Former International Athlete Professor Muhammad Shah, two times Gold Medalist of the South Asian Games in Javelin throw Iltaf Hussain, international qualified IAAF Level-III Coach Muhammad Wajid, who is also Director Sports and Organizing Secretary of the Championship, two international coaches Muhammad Nadeem and Hayat Ullah, Female Coach Bushra Khan, District Sports Officer Charsadda Muhammad Imran, Chief Referee Pakistan Badminton Federation Muhammad Amjad, Professor Tahir Khan of Swat, players, officials and large number of spectators were also present during the opening ceremony.

Vice Chancellor of KUST Dr. Sardar Khan in his message to the players appreciated the Prime Minister Talent Hunt Program in which boys are taking part in 12 different Games while girls are competing in 10 different Games.

Such an initiative carried out by the Higher Education Commission for the hunting of new talent in different Games would certainly improve the overall standard of the country at national and international level, Professor Dr. Sardar Khan said.

He assured the players that all out efforts and resources would be utilized with the guideline of the Directorate General Sports Higher Education Commission Islamabad. He also thanked Director General Sports HEC Javed Mimon for his untiring efforts in facilitating the players, both male and female in different Games.

VC Dr. Sarhad Khan said that KUST has a vital role in producing talented students and now sports is a key sector which needs more attention to motivate the students to take active part in healthy sports activities.

Former International Athlete Muhammad Shah on this occasion appreciated KUST and HEC for selecting and short-listing the players through an open trials in each of the game and first they would compete at the provincial league and later form a team to represent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the National League.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has been divided into five regions to accommodate all the districts including districts of the merged areas. Teams from five regions including Bannu/Kohat, Mardan/Buner/Mohmand, Swat/Chitral, Hazara, and Peshawar/Nowshera/Khyber are taking part.

In the opening match Hazara defeated Swat by 2-1. In the first singles Javeria of Swat recorded victory against Marwa in a thrilling three sets battle, the score was 23-21, 19-21 and 25-23. Both Javeria and Marwa played well and gave a tough time to each other with some beautiful overhead smashes, excellent service and cross court smashes were also witnessed.

In the doubles Laiba and Mehraj of Hazara recorded victory against Swat’s Javeria and Sana Gul in three sets battle, the score was 23-25, 21-19 and 21-18. In the second singles Mehraj defeated Sana Gul by 2-0, the score was 21-19 and 23-21 and in the second doubles Haleema and Marwa defeated Marhaba and Sheba by 2-1, the score was 21-19, 17-21 and 23-21. Thus Hazara won the match by 3-1.