Army defend taekwondo title

KARACHI: Army convincingly defended the title of the National Taekwondo Championship which concluded here at the NED University Gymnasium on Tuesday.

Army, who have been invincible for many years, ended at the summit with 29 gold, 30 silver and one bronze medal.

They were followed by WAPDA with five gold, nine silver and nine bronze medals.

Railways ended third with nine silver and nine bronze medals. Higher Education Commission (HEC) got six silver and ten bronze medals.

Sindh Greens got fifth position with four silver and 15 bronze medals.

Sindh Blues captured sixth place with nine bronze medals.

Squash legend Jehangir Khan and former Test cricketer Salahuddin Sallu graced the closing ceremony.

In male individual kyoruge Army’s Adeel Shah got gold in minus 74kg competitions. Mohammad Bilal of WAPDA claimed silver, while Zubair of Police and Rahat Ali of Railways bagged bronze medals.

In minus 80kg, Afnan of Army got gold, Faheem of Railways picked silver, while Mohib of Sindh Greens and Kamran of Gilgit-Baltistan secured bronze medals.

The minus 87kg gold went to Mohammad Faheem of WAPDA, Army’s Sajjad Hussain captured silver, while Mohammad Idrees of HEC and Zubair Asfar of Gilgit-Baltistan claimed bronze medals.

In plus 87kg slots, Army’s Asim secured gold, Adil bin Talat of Police captured silver, while Fazal Khan of Balochistan and Hamza of Sindh Blues picked bronze medals.

In female encounters in the same discipline, Yamna Siddiq of Army claimed gold in minus 62 kg, Misbah of HEC claimed silver, while Kinza Gul of Sindh Greens and Hasina of Sindh Blues captured bronze medals.

In minus 67kg, Mahnoor of Army got gold, Madiha Gul of HEC claimed silver, while Saima Sadi of Sindh Greens and Tayyaba Khan of WAPDA captured bronze medals.

The minus 73kg gold went to Army’s international Asia Batool. Asma Ali of HEC got silver, while Kulsoom of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Asra of Sindh claimed bronze medals.

Army’s Nusrat bagged the plus 73kg gold, Muneeza of Sindh Greens picked silver, while Hina of HEC and Sajida of WAPDA secured bronze medals.

In the competitions, which Sindh hosted after 16 years, 400 players from 12 units of Pakistan Taekwondo Federation (PTF) took part.

Sindh Taekwondo Association held the event by spending around Rs2 million. PTF president Lt Col Waseem Ahmed helped the organisers in holding the slots.  Pakistan Air Force and Navy skipped the slots.