Laiba bags women’s squash gold

ISLAMABAD: Promising Laiba Ijaz, the current under-15 No. 1 squash player clinched gold medal for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the ongoing Quaid-i-Azam Inter-Provincial Games at Mushaf Ali Mir Complex Tuesday.

Laiba Ijaz defeated Nimra Aqeel, also from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 11-6, 12-10 and 11-8 to win women’s gold. Laiba played well and did not give much chance to Nimra Aqeel to strike back. Laiba, earlier upset top seed Sabgha (Punjab) in the semi-finals defeating her 11-3, 11-5 and 11-5. Laiba Ijaz attributed her gold medal to former world champion Qamar Zaman, who is running the KP Women Squash Academy at the Jansher Khan Squash Complex. Laiba said that she could win medal for Pakistan in the international events if provided international exposure. “Females have potential but they have less opportunities of playing international matches.” In the last Quaid-e-Azam Games, Laiba won bronze medal and recently being named for the Fakre Peshawar Award by the KP Govt. She appreciated govt of KP for holding Under-23 Games by involving more than 8000 players across KP besides providing them cash incentives, uniform, shoes and rackets.

Meanwhile, Abdul Moeed Baloch retained his status as the fastest youngster around as he earned gold for Sindh in the 100m dash clocking 10.92 in the second Quaid-i-Azam Inter-provincial Games at the Jinnah Stadium Islamabad Tuesday.

Moeed who twenty months back won the honours of country’s fastest youngster again lived up to his reputation by retaining the title. He was followed by Laeeq Need (Punjab) and Sohaib Mahfooz (KP) for silver and bronze medals respectively.