Laiba bags squash gold

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

Laiba defeated Nimra Aqeel from KPK 11-6, 12-10, 11-8 to win the gold. Laiba played well and did not give much chance to Nimra Aqeel to strike back.Earlier, Laiba upset top seed Sabgha (Punjab) 11-3, 11-5, 11-5 in the semi-finals.

Laiba 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 medals for Pakistan in the international events if provided international exposure.

“Despite having the sufficient potential, female players have less opportunities of playing international matches.”In the last Quaid-i-Azam Games, Laiba won bronze medal and recently being named for the Fakhr-e-Peshawar Award by the KP Government. She also lauded Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for holding Under-23 Games by involving more than 8000 athletes besides providing them cash incentives, uniform, shoes and rackets.