Wrestler Adnan secures silver

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: National wrestler Mohammad Adnan had to be content with the silver medal when he lost his -90 kilogramme Pahlavani style belt wrestling final against Iran’s Arashk Mohebi 10-0 in connection with the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games here at the Olympic Complex on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan got bronze in men’s singles 6-Red snooker competitions when Mohammad Sajjad lost his semi-final against China’s Yan Bingtao 5-3.

The outcome inflated Pakistan’s overall tally to two gold, three silver and 14 bronze medals. Pakistan were trailing at the 17th place till the filing of this report. Turkmenistan were leading the medals table with 57 gold, 41 silver and 42 bronze medals.

They were followed by Thailand (13-12-14) and Iran at the third spot (13-9-27). It was expected that Adnan would secure gold but he failed to offer resistance to his Iranian rival.

Adnan had defeated Teo Aik Eng Binjamin of Singapore in the semi-finals and Masrur Meralishoev of Tajikistan in the quarter-finals. He had got bye in the first round.

Qamar Abbas wasted a golden opportunity of winning a bronze medal when he lost his repechage -70 kilogramme Pahlavani style bronze medal fight against Mongolia’s Sukhbat Boldkhoy 7-1.Qamar had earlier lost to Iran’s Mohammed Naderi in the semi-finals.

In the quarter-finals, he had defeated Abdulkhaev Sorbon of Tajikistan and ousted Kyrgyzstan’s Turatbek Uulu Argen in the pre-quarter-finals. Zaman Anwar fell at the first hurdle in the +90kg competitions against Kyrgyzstan’s Karybekov Arzubek.

The other bronze came in 6-Red snooker men’s singles slots in which Sajjad lost the semi-final against China’s Yan Bingtao 5-3.In weightlifting, Pakistan’s Furqan Anwar topped Group B, featuring four weightlifters. However, he finished overall at the tenth place as Group A had world’s leading athletes.

Furqan lifted a total weight of 277 — 127 in snatch and 150 in clean and jerk. In snatch he lifted 123 in his first attempt, 127 in the second but missed his third attempt of lifting 130. In clean and jerk, Furqan lifted 150kg, but failed to lift 155kg in his next two attempts.

In the same group, Fiji’s Patrick Veidreyaki totaled 255kg (115+140), Tajikistan’s Ramoiljon Zabirov 255 (115+140) and Tajikistan’s Ilkhomjon Shukurov 247 (110+137).On Saturday (tomorrow), Usman Amjad Rathore will show his mettle in 94kilogramme Group A competitions.

Jamil Akhtar will appear in the 105 kilogramme Group A competitions on Sunday. Pakistan has no chance of a medal in weightlifting because of the presence of major players of the world.

Pakistan’s taekwondo fighters Arsalan Asad Khan and Mohammad Iqbal exited the competitions on Thursday.Shah Adil (-87kg) and Mohammad Faheem (-74kg) had fallen at the first hurdle.

Arsalan lost his -68 kilogramme round-of-32 fight against Kangeun Seo of Korea 2-25, while 18-year-old Iqbal went 10-29 down against Afghanistan’s 20-year-old M Sharif Muradi in -68kg pre-quarter-finals. He had gotten bye in the first round.

On Friday (today), Pakistan’s Nayab Sophia Baig will compete in women’s individual poomsae semi-finals at 10:30am.

Ehsan Ashraf will compete in men’s individual poomsae semi-finals at 9am. Pakistan’s disappointing show in indoor tennis continued as the country exited at the first hurdle in both men’s and women’s doubles competitions on Thursday.

In men’s doubles first round, Pakistan’s Ahmed Chaudhry and Abdaal Haider went 6-1, 6-1 down against Uzbekistan’s Farrukh Dustov and Sanjar Fayziev.In women’s doubles, Sara Mansoor and Sara Khan lost their first round women’s doubles battle 6-2, 6-0 against Chinese Taipei’s Chang Hslao-Yun and Wei Ting-Chieh.Pakistan’s Olympic wrestling, kick-boxing and e-sports teams reached here on Thursday.