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Thursday March 28, 2024

Pakistan athletes disappoint again in Ashgabat

By Alam Zeb Safi
September 25, 2017

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: It was a disappointing day for Pakistan at the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games as the country failed to impress in a number of disciplines on the ninth day here at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday.

In Olympic wrestling freestyle competitions, Pakistan began their journey in a disappointing way when Mohammad Bilal went 1-12 down against Kazuya Kayanagi of Japan in the second round following a bye in the first round of the 57 kilogramme competitions, carrying 19 grapplers.

Mohammad Inam, the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist (86kg), and Abdul Wahab (61kg), both in freestyle, will compete on Monday (today). Inam will face Puletasi Nolan Ili of American Samoa in the pre-quarter-finals. He and his rival got bye in the first round of the class in which 19 wrestlers are competing.

Abdul Wahab will face in the quarter-finals the winner of the fight to be held earlier in the day between Zubaidullah Timori of Afghanistan and Nicolescu Cristian Etpison of Palau. Wahab got bye in the first round.

Azhar Hussain, the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist (59kg), Shoukat Ali (66kg) and Mohammad Umair (98kg), all three in Greco-Roman, will compete on Tuesday (tomorrow). In weightlifting, Pakistan ended their journey when Jamil Akhtar 105 (kg) finished eighth in Group A which carried eight contestants. He ended tenth overall out of 13 participants.

His total was 319 kg, 144 kg in snatch and 175 kg in clean and jerk. In snatch he lifted 140 kg in first attempt, 144 kg in the second and failed to lift 147 kg in the third. In clean and jerk he lifted 170 kg in the first attempt and 175 kg each in the second and the third attempts.

The gold medal went to Ivan Efremov of Uzbekistan who totalled 411 kg, with 190 kg in snatch and 221 kg in clean and jerk. Ali Hashemi of Iran, the Asian champion, won silver with a total of 401 kg, 181 kg in snatch and 220 kg in clean and jerk.

Salwan Alaifuri of Iraq clinched bronze with a total of 395 kg, 176 kg in snatch and 219 kg in clean and jerk. Usman Amjad Rathore (94kg, Group A) had finished 9th out 16 and Furqan Anwar (77 kg, Group B) 10th out of 13 overall.

In kick-boxing, Pakistan’s two more fighters fell at the first hurdle. Maaz Khan (75 kg) is now the only medal hope. He will compete against Iran’s Hossein Karami in the semi-finals on Monday (today).

Maaz, the 2010 Dhaka South Asian Games wushu gold medallist, had defeated Rohollah Mohammadi of Afghanistan 0-2 in the quarter-finals on Saturday. On Sunday in low-kick 51 kg pre-quarter-finals, Liaquat Ali was disqualified against Robin Catalan of Philippines.

Shafiq-ur-Rehman (79 kg) was the other casualty as he went 3-13 down against Yousef Qawasmch of Jordon in point fighting pre-quarter-finals.Abdul Samad, Mohammad Asghar, Atif Altaf and Mohammad Bilal had exited on Saturday. Pakistan had fielded seven fighters.

In short-course swimming, Pakistan struggled as usual. In men’s 100m backstroke heat, Waqas Hussain topped his heat consisting of three swimmers by clocking 1:02.77, but overall finished at a poor 20th place out of 25 participants.

In men’s 50m butterfly heat, Farrukh Shehzad finished seventh in his heat with a timing of 28.38, ending 34th among 43 contestants.

In men’s 4x50m relay, Pakistan, with a timing of 1:47.37, finished at the last 15th spot in the contest in which Tajikistan did not swim.

Pakistan were featuring Mohammad Yahya, Hamza Malik, Farrukh Shehzad and Waqas Hussain. In women’s 50m butterfly heat, Bisma Khan clocked 30.72 to finish sixth out of eight participants, ending overall 16th out of 27 contestants.

In the same event, Aisha Mishael ended seventh out of eight. In women’s 100m backstroke heats, Jehanara Nabi with a timing of 1:18.58 finished overall at the last 16th place.

In men’s 4x50m freestyle relay, Pakistan, carrying Yahya, Hamza, Farrukh and Waqas, finished at the last 15th place overall by clocking 1:47. 37.

Pakistan, carrying Bisma, Mishael, Jehanara and Ramsha, finished seventh out of eight teams in women’s 4x50m freestyle relay final by clocking 1:57.17.

China clinched gold with the Games record timing of 1:40.16, followed by Hong Kong (1:40.26) and Thailand (1:41.16) with silver and bronze medals, respectively.

On the last day on Monday (today), Pakistan will appear in women’s 100m IM, men’s 100m IM, women’s 100m freestyle, men’s 100m freestyle, women’s backstroke, men’s 50m breaststroke, women’s 100m IM final, men’s 100m IM final, women’s 100m freestyle final, men’s and women’s 4x00m medley relay finals and women’s  50m breaststroke final.

Till filing of this report, Pakistan were trailing at the 19th place with two gold, three silver and 15 bronze medals. Turkmenistan were heading the medals chart with 78 gold, 56 silver and 66 bronze. They were followed by China (21-21-16) and Iran (20-15-45).