ASHGABAT: Pakistan’s athletics officials on Tuesday accepted that their key athlete Mehboob Ali, the Olympian, has been rightly disqualified for a foul in his competition at the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games here at the Olympic Village.
Mehboob had topped the second 400m second semi-final at the well-equipped indoor athletics arena on Monday with a Pakistan record 47.73 seconds. An official of Pakistan’s athletics team told ‘The News’ that he was “genuinely” disqualified.
“The coaches and the athletes saw the video which showed that he did commit foul,” the official told ‘The News’. On Monday the event director had told Pakistan’s officials that Mehboob had made a foul and had been disqualified. As a result, Pakistan lost a chance of finishing at the victory podium in the 400m in which Mehboob’s elder brother Nokar Hussain had lost his semi-final on Monday.
A Pakistani official told this correspondent that there was no chance that Mehboob would be penalised for making the foul. “This was not a deliberate offence. He touched the line by mistake so it was just bad luck and no fine can be imposed,” the official said. The other day Pakistan also remained unlucky when they failed to win gold in men’s duo classic ju-jitsu competitions. Mohammad Ammar and Abu Huraira were restricted to silver medal due to blunders from the referees.
It was again not a good day for the national athletes on Tuesday. Maria Maratab ended eighth out of ten athletes in women’s triple jump final by recording 11.52 metres. The gold went to Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova with a timing of 14.32. Maria Ovchinnikova of Kazakhstan (13.21) and Qiujiao Tan (13.10) of China claimed silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Maria had also fallen in the 60m hurdles final on Monday when she ended seventh out of eight athletes with 9.33 seconds timing. Olympian Najma Parveen ended sixth out of eight in women’s 60m first round heat and missed the final spot by miles as she clocked 8.11 seconds of timing.
Sprinter Mohammad Shehbaz had been expected to do well but he also fell short of his target. He exited from the 60m sprint when he finished fifth out of eight athletes in his semi-final in which three had to qualify for the final. Shehbaz’ timing was 7.05 seconds.
Shehbaz, who plays for Army, had qualified for the semi-finals when he finished third with a timing of 7.03 out of seven athletes.
On Wednesday (today), Zeenat Parveen will show her worth in women’s shot put. The Asian Youth Championship gold medallist Mohammad Afzal will be put to a real test in men’s triple jump final.
The athletics competitions will come to an end on Wednesday. Pakistan will also field their team in the 4X400m relay final.
