Special Olympics World Games
KARACHI
The 8th Lakson Investments SOP Unified Marathon under Special Olympics Pakistan was organized at DHA Phase-8 near the beach in which a 21km marathon, 10 and 5km races and 1km unified walk took place in which a large number of men, women, seniors, artists, athletes also participated alongside special athletes.
People from different walks of life, representatives of educational, social, charitable, and business institutions and organizations, dignitaries and foreign diplomats participated, while the wheelchair walk of special people was the focus of special attention of the participants.
Special children including the dumb, deaf and mentally challenged special people also made their presence felt in the marathon. The purpose of the marathon was to show solidarity with the special people. SOP ambassador Sarwat Geelani and musician Faisal Kapadia also participated.
In the opening ceremony of the marathon, Iqbal Lakhani was the chief guest, while in the closing ceremony, Faisal Bank President and CEO Yusuf Hussain was the chief guest, along with the chairperson of Special Olympics Pakistan, Ronak Lakhani, who distributed prizes among the successful participants and distributed medals and cash prizes of Rs 15,000 to the first position winners, Rs 10,000 to the second position and Rs 5,000 to the third position winners.
On this occasion, Faisal Hussain announced the sponsorship of five national team players by Faysal Bank for the Special Olympic World Games to be played in Berlin, Germany from 17 to 25 June this year.
Speaking on the occasion, Iqbal Lakhani said that special athletes who have won laurels for the country are role models for all, their abilities are not less than others, but they are differently-abled.
The chairperson of the event, Ronak Lakhani, also expressed her gratitude to the participants and organizers of the marathon and vowed to organize the marathon next year with more enthusiasm. — DNA
