LAHORE, Aug 26: The Punjab Youth Sports Festival 2012 began throughout the province on Sunday with special dengue awareness campaign on the sideline.

In Lahore, competitions in athletics, badminton, billiard, tape ball cricket, arms wrestling, tug-of-war and volleyball started at 9am and by noon the events were concluded except from some of the union councils and towns where the last day’s rain left the fields and ground unplayable. Events in these localities were postponed for the next day.

At Union Councils 31 and 32, Baja Line A beat their B team 2-1 in volleyball while Baray Mian Dars Reds defeated their Whites team 2-1 in tug-of-war.

In arms wrestling, five bouts were held and the winners were Shahzad Mahmood, Ijaz Nawaz, Suraj Mukhtar, Akash Sohail and Imran Zeeshan. They beat Khalid Youhana, Zamran Hameed, Atif John, Najad Akram and Shahbaz Rafiq, respectively.

At the Government Science College, Wahadat Road, a total of 112 players participated in different events while 54 players from Union Council 110 and 58 from Union Council 111 locked their horns for top honour.

Some 55,200 Sports and Youth Development Councils at neighbourhood and village level are participating in the festival being arranged with the aim to revive sports culture and healthy activities.

In connection with special dengue awareness campaign, a walk was held at the UC 1 and 2 and a seminar at UC 41 before the start of the festival events.