Sinan bags silver in Sofia Taekwondo

DUBAI: UAE-based Pakistani player Sinan Ashfaq won silver medal for his country at the Sofia Open Taekwondo Championship held in Bulgaria.

This is Sinan’s fourth medal for Pakistan in four months this year in the international Taekwondo championships. Sinan won semifinal with a big margin of 18 points beating Theocharis Papapanagiotou from Greece in the plus 65 weight category in the Cadet Division. He surprised the audience with his skills against a very strong opponent. Unfortunately, he narrowly missed as he lost to Dimitrije Ajdukovic from Serbia in the final after giving tough time to his opponent despite his foot injury.

Sinan’s winning spree continues this year as he won silver medal in Belgium Open in March, gold medal in the UAE National Championship in Sharjah in February and a gold medal in the Fujairah International Championship in January this year. Sinan is the first Pakistani player in the cadet category to win medals in Europe. Sinan’s next target is the Asian Cadet Taekwondo World Cup in Jordan in July and the Cadet Taekwondo World Cup in Tashkent in August this year.

The 13-year-old Sharjah boy had opened with a Bronze for Pakistan at the President’s World Taekwondo Championship held in Tashkent in August 2017. Sinan is also a high performing student at the North American International School (NAIS) in Dubai.

“I am happy with my performance but also sad for not winning the gold for my country. I will work even harder to win medals for Pakistan in the upcoming events,” he said.Sinan dedicated his medal to the Prime Minister Imran Khan and also thanked the Pakistan Taekwondo Federation for supporting him. Sinan’s coach Abdullah Hatim, UAE national team coach and technical director at Sharjah Sports Club, commended Sinan’s performance.Colonel Waseem Ahmed, President, Pakistan Taekwondo Federation (PTF), said that he was very happy to see Sinan growing fast.