The hallmark of a well-executed sporting event lies in the host city’s cultural and sociopolitical fabric blanketing the games in a warm welcome.

As the 35th National Games returned to Karachi after 18 years, athletes and spectators alike were reminded of how quintessentially Karachi it was. Dust coated every available surface, cool mornings gave way to blistering December afternoons, fights broke out on court and on field to background commentary of “oye yaar!”

But the games were also a microcosm of the religio-cultural amalgamation Karachi has been moulded into. The opening ceremony showcased faces and skin tones of every ethnicity in Pakistan, as thousands of athletes grinned and waved to the cameras, speaking in tongues known to their teammates but not the next. Punjabi athletes stole the show when they took literal centre-stage in the jhumar dance, as their Sindhi counterparts cheered on.

Any sport on any given day boasted the past, present and future of international athletes. National gem Arshad Nadeem explicitly said to a dozen or so media channels that this was where it all began for him, that the National Games were a springboard to his future success, which has so far crescendoed at Olympic gold and an Olympic record. 

The 35th National Games had the cream of the country’s athletes prove their mettle in Karachi in the hopes of potentially moving onwards and upwards to the international stage

Watching him launch his javelin to national gold was Shabana Akhtar, Pakistan’s first female Olympian at the 1996 Atlanta Games. She holds the record for the most number........

© Dawn (Magazines)