Zohaib Rasheed off to flying start in National Games’ boxing event

LAHORE: The country's top boxer and the Asian bronze medallist Zohaib Rasheed of Navy on Saturday was off to a splendid start when be won his preliminary fight in the 34th National Games boxing event which began at the Ayub Stadium.

Zohaib, who has to his credit bronze in the Asian Senior Boxing Championship and Asian Under-22 Boxing Championship, defeated Abdul Hadi of Police 5-0 to take a good start to his minimum weight (46-48kg) campaign.

In the same weight category Mohammad Faheem of Army defeated Mohammad Zafar of Higher Education Commission (HEC) 5-0 while Jehanzeb Khan of Balochistan got the better of Abu Bakar 5-0 to progress.

Meanwhile in the flyweight category (48-51kg) Zohaib's brother Sajid Rasheed, also of Navy, downed Qudrat of Balochistan 5-0. In the same weight Amir Hamza of PAF conquered Mohammad Shakeel of Punjab when referee stopped the fight after Shakeel got injured.

Talha of Army, also in the same weight, defeated Muneer of HEC 5-0. Usama of Railways whacked Saud Safaqullah of Islamabad 5-0 to progress.

In the bantam weight category (51-54) Ashraf Khan of HEC conquered Mohammad Zubair of Police 5-0.

Mehroz Ali of PAF beat Shams of Railways 5-0 and Shamama Rehman of Punjab downed Abdul Majeed of KP in the second round through RSC.

In the featherweight category (54-57kg) Sikandar Mirza of Police downed Jehanzeb of Sindh in the second via RSC. Aurangzeb of Navy defeated Amanullah of Balochistan 3-2 while Army's Zakir Hussain defeated Mohammad Daniyal of PAF 5-0. In the lightweight category (57-60kg) Tabarruk Alizai of Navy knocked out Hasan Qayyum of Islamabad in the first round.

Football: Hosts Balochistan whipped Higher Education Commission (HEC) 4-1 to open their men's football event of the 34th National Games in style at the Ayub Stadium in Quetta on Saturday.

Ali Agha turned out to be the hero for the winners scoring hat-trick. He struck in the tenth, 20th and 30th minutes to complete the treble. He was joined on the score sheet by Mohammad Tahir who landed a dine foal in the 54th minute to stretch Balochistan's lead to 4-0. Hamad Hasan struck the consolation goal for HEC in the 63rd minute.

Meanwhile in the women football event Police defeated Balochiatan 3-0 while Army conquered HEC 2-0.

Softball: Higher Education Commission (HEC) were off to a fine start when they defeated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by 15 runs in their opener of the women softball event of the 34th National Games in Quetta on Saturday.

Meanwhile Balochistan conquered Sindh by nine runs. HEC did a fine job to topple KP with

Tasmia, Iram, Samra, Ramsha and Fiza scoring 21 runs for the victorious side. Tanzeela, Sumbul and Manahil scored two runs each for KP while Tehzeeb, Parkha, Shawal and Faryal scored one run each for their team.

In the second match Balochistan defeated Sindh by nine runs. Sindh scored 12 runs in their four innings, Tulsi Meghar and Farasha scored three runs each.

In response, Balochistan scored 21 runs in four innings and won by nine runs.

Rommel, Nayab, Amina, Arhama and Kaka played an important role in Balochiatan's success, scoring three runs each.

On Sunday (today) WAPDA will lock horns with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while Army will meet Balochistan.

Handball: WAPDA's women handball got off to a super start when they inflicted a huge 40-3 defeat on minnows Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in their Group B opener of the women's handball event of the 24yh National Games at the Ayub Stadium Quetta on Saturday.

Meanwhile Army whipped Gilgit Baltistan 37-1 in their Group A clash, Punjab crushed Police 19-2 while Higher Education Commission (HEC) downed Balochistan 37-4.

The men's matches were in progress rill filing of the report.