33rd National Games: Army leading medals table

PESHAWAR: Army were on Monday leading the medal-table of the 33rd National Games with 29 gold, 18 silvers and ten bronze medals.

They were followed by Wapda with ten gold, 15 silvers and ten bronze as per unofficial medals statistics. Navy, meanwhile, were trailing third with eight gold, 12 silvers and eight bronze medals on the second day of the biennial event which is being hosted by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the seventh time.

In women’s volleyball Higher Commission (HEC) defeated Sindh 3-0 in their Group B opener with the set score being 25-15, 25-11, 25-15. Meanwhile WAPDA defeated Punjab 3-0 in Group A with the set score of 25-7, 25-7, 25-10. Army then edged past Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 3-0 with the set score being 25-8, 25-8 and 25-8.

Seven teams are competing in women segment which have been placed in two groups. Wapda, Police and Punjab have been placed in Group A while HEC, Army, KP and Sindh have been bracketed in Group B. Two outfits from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.

Meanwhile in boxing preliminaries Mohammad Ashraf of Railways beat Babu Pervez of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the 60 kilogramme fight to make it to the pre-quarter-finals which will be held on Tuesday (today). In other fights in the same weight Mohammad Shoaib of Punjab overcame Naseeb Murad of PAF, Mohibullah of Balochistan edged past Salam Khan of Gilgit Baltsitan, Ibrahim of Army defeated Sheraz of Navy, Ghulam Mohammad of Police beat Aurang Zeb Alam of AJK, Mohibullah of WAPDA defeated Sajid Ali of Higher Education Commission (HEC), Amir Masood of PAF defeated Fahim Talib of KP. In 64kg, Qadir Khan of Navy beat Faizan of HEC, Naqeeb Ullah of Balochistan got the better of Nauman Asif of AJK , Naqeeb Ullah of WAPDA beat Mohammad Wakeel of Police.

Mohammad Daud of Railways, in the same weight, beat Sameer Khan of Gilgit Baltistan, Suleman Baloch of Army beat Zahid Ali of Islamabad. In the 69kg, Saddam Hussain of Islamabad overwhelmed Asif Saeed of Gilgit Baltistan and Pakistan’s solid fighter Gul Zaib of Army defeated Noor Hasan of Police. Earlier on Sunday in men’s boxing preliminaries, in the 49kg Zohaib Rasheed of Sindh defeated Mohammad Musawar of Railways, Ahmed Khan of HEC defeated Ahsan Rauf of AJK, Mohammad Saeed of Army got the better of Mohammad Nadeem of Police and Jehanzeb Khan of WAPDA overpowered Hamza Rao of Islamabad. Similarly in the same weight Zakir Hussain of Balochistan beat Mohammad Abu Bakar of Punjab and Bilal Ahmed of PAF defeated Shahzeb Khan of Gilgit Baltistan.

In the 52kg, Bashir Ahmed of Balochistan defeated Mohammad Hussain of AJK, Abdul Wali of HEC edged past Arshad Hussain of AJK, Noor Ali of Railwaysknocked-out Inamullah Khan of Punjab and Pakistan’s solid fighter Syed Mohammad Asif defeated Mehroz Ali of PAF.

In wrestling Wapda were dominating as nine of their grapplers including Pakistan’s premier fighter Mohammad Inam, qualified for the finals while six wrestlers of Army reached finals. The finals will be held on Tuesday (today).

Earlier, the 33rd National Games, carrying 5000 athletes, were on Sunday formally opened during a splendid ceremony here at the heavily guarded Qayyum Sports Complex.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mehmood Khan formally announced the Games opened as chief guest. Peshawar Corps Commander Lt General Shaheen Mazhar Mehmood was the guest of honour.

Also present were the KP Provincial Assembly Deputy Speaker Mehmood Jan, KP senior minister Atif Khan, former squash greats Jehangir Khan and Jansher Khan, hockey Olympians Islahuddin Siddiqui and Qazi Salahuddin, Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) President Lt General (retd) Syed Arif Hasan, secretary Khalid Mehmood, KP Olympic Association’s President Syed Aqil Shah and top officials of national federations and members of the KP Assembly.

Pakistan’s premier wrestler and two-time world beach champion and gold medallist of the recently held inaugural World Beach Games Mohammad Inam Butt led the march past while holding Pakistan’s flag.

Pakistan Air Force (PAF) led the march-past and they were followed by Army, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Navy, Police, Punjab, Railways, Sindh, WAPDA and hosts KP.

The march-past was followed by national anthem. On the request of the POA chief Arif Hasan KP CM Mehmood Khan announced the Games opened. It was followed by a superb fire-works which could have been more captivating had the ceremony held in the evening.

Squash legend Jansher Khan was given the torch and he passed it to South Asian Games gold medallist footballer Imran Niazi, hockey Olympian Rahim Khan before eventually it was handed over to the hockey Olympian Qazi Salahuddin who lit the torch which will be kept burning till the end of the biennial spectacle.

Senior players took oath on behalf of the participating players. A bunch of youngsters from the Army’s Special Services Group (SSG) led by Lt Col Mohammad Imran, demonstrated free-fall from 4000 feet and that segment won the hearts of the capacity crowd witnessing the ceremony.

Meanwhile Army won the shooting event of the 33rd National Games with a whopping 659 points in Jhelum on Sunday.In the competitions held at the Army Marksmanship Unit Jhelum, Army claimed 13 gold, ten silver and nine bronze medals to top the leaders board.

They were followed by Navy with 608 points which they obtained by virtue of accumulating eight gold, 12 silver and eight bronze.They were followed by PAF (146 points, 2-gold, 1 silver- 2 bronze), Wapda (125 (1-0-4) and Sindh (98 points (1-2-1).

As per details in the 25m rapid fire pistol Ghulam Mohammad Bashir of Navy, who recently qualified for the 2020 Olympics, got gold with 637 points, Khalil Akhtar of Army, who has also qualified for Tokyo 2020, claimed silver with 626 points while Hamza Khan of Army got bronze with 605 points.

In skeet highly talented international shooter Usman Chand of Army claimed gold with 173 points, Asif Mehmood of Navy picked silver with 167 points and Ahmed Usman of Sindh got bronze with 153 points.

In trap Lt Col Mohammad Farrukh Nadeem of Army got gold with 159 points, Usman Sadiq of Sindh picked silver with 157 points while Major Amir Iqbal of Army clinched bronze with 144.

The double trap gold went to Major Aamer Iqbal with 130 points, Lt Col Mohammad Farrukh Nadeem of Army claimed silver with 123 points while Col Junaid Waqas Iqbal of Army picked bronze with 118 points. In the 25m centre fire pistol Mohammad Khalil Akhtar got gold with 581 points, Mohammad Kabir of Army claimed silver with 578 points and Ghulam Mustafa Bashir of Navy clinched bronze with 575.

The 25m standard fire pistol gold went to Maqbool Hussain of Wapda with 572 points, Mohammad Khalil Akhtar of Army got silver with 561 points and Mohammad Qazafi of Army claimed bronze with 561 points.

In the 50m pistol Abid Ali of PAF equaled national record with an 558 points glorious gold winning effort with 809.7 points, Kaleemullah of Army picked silver with 807.9 points while bronze went to Maqbool of Wapda wwho scored 782.8 points.

The 50m 3X40 rifle event gold went to Zeeshan Shakir of Army with 1589.2 points, Ghufran Adil of Navy with 1583.4 points claimed silver while Sagheer Ahmed of Army took bronze with a total of 1566.2 points.

In prone rifle final Midrar Ali of PAF clinched gold with 613.9 points, Aqib Latif of Navy picked silver with 613.6 points while Sagheer Ahmed of Army claimed bronze with 612.8 points. In 10m air rifle Sarfraz Gul of Army clinched gold with 865 points, Ghufran Adil of Army claimed silver with 861.3 points while Zeeshan Shakir of Navy took bronze with 838.4 points. In 3x40 rifle final (women) Nadra Raees of Navy claimed gold with 1581.6 points, Nadia Rashid of Navy picked silver with 1548.9 points while Nazish of Navy picked bronze with 1512.4 points.

The 10 m air pistol gold went to Mehwish of Navy with 804.8 points, Kishmala Talat of Army got silver with 776.5 points and Lubna Amin of Navy claimed bronze with 750.8 points.

The 25m pistol gold was attained by Mehwish Farhan of Navy with 596 points, Rabia of navy with 595 points got silver while Major Tazeem Akhtar of Army picked bronze with 573 points.

The 50m prone rifle gold went to Nadra Raees of Navy who secured 615.2 points, Sara Salim of Navy with 611.1 points picked silver and Nazish Khan of Navy with a score of 601.2 claimed bronze.