Pakistan advance in athletics, fail elsewhere

KARACHI: Pakistan qualified for the final in men’s 4x400 metre relay event in Asian Games on Wednesday.

In athletics, Pakistan qualified for the final with the timing of 3:08.20 minutes to claim the fifth position in heat one in men’s 4x400 metre relay event. Pakistan’s team comprising Umar Sadat, Mehboob Ali, Mazhar Ali, and Mohammad Nadeem achieved this timing.

Pakistan is expecting medal in this category. However, Pakistan’s top athlete Naukar Hussain is not participating in this relay category. A doctor of Pakistan Medical Commission stopped him from participation in this event due to injury.

Naukar’s injury prevented him from participation in the semi-final of 400 metre race despite his qualification.

According to Asghar Gul, the head coach of Pakistan Athletics Federation, Umar Sadat was inducted in the team in place of Naukar.

Meanwhile, Pakistan failed to qualify for the finals of men’s 4x100 metre relay category as the team stood sixth with the timing of 40.56 seconds.

Pakistan’s team consisted of Mohammad Shahbaz, Liaquat Ali, Uzair Rehman, and Gauhar Shehbaz.

In handball, Pakistan beat Malaysia 47-24 in the main round match of Group 3.

Pakistan scored 21 goals in the first half while Malaysia managed only nine.

Pakistan scored 26 goals and Malaysia 15 goals in the second half.

Despite the win, Pakistan crashed out of the event as they won only two matches out of six.

In boxing, Naqeebullah lost 0-5 to Boxiang Xu of China in the quarter-finals of Bantam (56kg) category. He lost the fight on technical grounds.

In the 30th minute of the first round of the fight, Naqeeb’s hard punch injured his opponent and the fight was stopped. The medical team then declared the Chinese boxer unfit for the fight.

According to IABA’s rules, the boxer with more points is declared winner in this case. Hence, the Chinese boxer was declared the winner.

In squash, top seeds Hong Kong beat fourth seeds Pakistan 3-0 in a group match of men’s category.

Ho Yin Lee overpowered Mohammad Asim Khan 7-11, 11-5, 11-5, 14-12; Chun Ming Au defeated Israr Ahmad 11-8, 11-7, 11-4; and Tzs Fung Yi beat Amaad Fareed 11-6, 11-5, 11-3.

Pakistan will face Korea in their last group match.

In kurash, Dilawar Khan Sannan was beaten by Kaseem Mohammad of Syria 0-10 in the round 32 of men’s 81kg category.

In sepaktakraw, Iran beat Pakistan 2-0 in a group match. In soft tennis, Nauman Aftab and Marium Shahid were beaten by the Indonesian duo of Irfandi Hendrawan and Dede Tari Kusrini 0-5 in a group match.

They also lost to the duo of Cheinchun Kuo and Chienchi Kuo from Chinese Taipei 0-5. The pair of Ehtisham Ahmed and Eraj Batool was defeated by the Japanese duo of Rurika Kuroki and Kento Masuda 0-5 in a group match.

They also lost to the Mongolian pair of Norovsuren Bulgan and Enkhjin Bolortuya 1-5. In table tennis, the pair of Asim Qureshi and Aisha Iqbal was beaten by the Macau duo of Chun Wang and Cheng I Cheong 1-3 (9-11, 11-7, 7-11, 8-11) in the first round.

Mohammad Rameez and Fatima Khan were thrashed by the Japanese duo of Jin Ueda and Miyu Maeda 0-3 (3-11, 4-11, 1-11) in the second round.

In bridge, Asad Maqbool and Ghalib Ali scored 1109 points in the qualification round three. Nadir Ali and Asadullah Khan scored 1074 points. Farrukh Liaquat and Gulzar Ahmad scored 994.70 points. In the qualification round four, Asad/Ghalib scored 1347 points; Nadir/Asadullah scored 1401.10; and Farrukh/Gulzar scored 1430.90.