LAHORE: Pakistan on Friday conquered three-time champions South Korea in straight sets to set date with Qatar in the quarter-finals of the men’s volleyball event of the 19th Asian Games held at the China Textiles City Sports Centre Gymnasium in Hangzhou.
In a crucial game, Pakistan brought into practice their every trick and played with perfect approach to down South Korea 3-0 to confirm their quarter-finals berth. The set score was 25-19, 25-22, 25-21 in Pakistan’s favour.
The Green-shirts hardly made any mistakes in the show and played under a system introduced by their Brazilian coach Issanaye Ferraz who has been handling the unit for the last few months.
Murad Jehan Junior did well in the block and so did Usman Faryad, the smasher, who exhibited his exceptional skills. Libero Nasir’s defensive display was worth seeing. Murad Jehan, Abdul Zaheer and Musawar Khan also put the Koreans under immense pressure.
“It’s a huge win,” Pakistan Volleyball Federation’s (PVF) chairman Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob told ‘The News’ from Hangzhou. “In the previous game against Chinese Taipei the team lacked in certain zones but today the boys overcame everything and played outstanding game,” Yaqoob said.
“After taking 2-0 lead the boys seemed over-excited and I feared it might hurt them but they showed great discipline in the third set as well to complete an impressive win,” said Yaqoob, a former top police official.
“The victory has instilled a lot of confidence in the unit. You get motivated when you notch a major win and this is what we wanted from the squad. Now we will face Qatar in the quarter-finals and I am hopeful we will beat them,” Yaqoob said.
Pakistan will face Qatar in the quarter-finals on Sunday (tomorrow). Sailing: At the NBX Sailing Centre in the sailing events, Muzammil Hassan of Pakistan finished 12th out of 13 competitors in the third race of the men’s ILCA7 with 12 penalty points. He then ended tenth in the fourth race with ten points.
Meanwhile, in the 470 class race-3 Pakistan’s crew, carrying Nadine Xerxes Avari and Mehboob, finished at the last seventh place. However, they improved a little by finishing fifth in the fourth race with five points.
In the girls ILCA4, third race, carrying eight contestants, Zoya Asad Ali finished seventh with seven points. In the fourth race she ended fifth with five points. In the Boys ILCA 4 third race Javed Raphael finished at the last 12th position with 12 points. He then ended the race-4 at the ninth place.
Rowing: In the men’s singles sculls semi-final A/B1 Zahid Iqbal Khan finished fourth with a time of 7:56.96 to progress to the Final B.
Pakistani rowers will now compete in the lightweight men’s doubles sculls on September 24 while on September 25 Zahid Iqbal Khan will compete in the men’s singles sculls final B. On the same day Pakistan will also compete in the men’s quadruple sculls final B.
Table Tennis: At the Gongshu Canal Sports Gymnasium Pakistan were downed by South Korea 3-0 in their women’s team Group D preliminaries.
Haiqa Hasan was beaten by Jihee Jeon 3-0 with the set scores being 11-4, 11-2, 11-2. Hoor Fawad then went down to Yubi Shin 3-0 with the set score of 11-2, 11-4, 11-2. Perniya Zaman Khan was beaten by Won Hyo Suh 3-0 with the set scores being 11-6, 11-4, 11-5. Meanwhile, Korea downed Thailand 3-0. Pakistan will face Thailand on Saturday (today).