33rd National Games

Bismah Khan set to shatter her sister’s record

By Our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: Teenager Bismah Khan eyes national record as she is set to enhance her gold medal tally to eight in the 33rd National Games here at the Pakistan Sports Complex swimming pool today (Wednesday).

Currently she has won six gold medals, adding three more to her first day’s collection. By winning her next two favourite events, she could well shatter her sister Kiran Khan’s record.

Bismah, who is training in Russia these days in preparation for the South Asian Games, captured three more gold medals on Tuesday in 200m backstroke, 100m butterfly and 200m freestyle events.

She was also part of the Army team that went on to win the 4X100m medley relay.

Meanwhile, Army women raced to 10 gold medals at the end of second day’s competitions with Wapda girls having to content with three gold.

In the men’s swimming competition, Army’s dominance is almost unchecked with 11 gold medals. Apart from that, Army swimmers also won six silver and two bronze medals. Wapda have claimed four silver and four bronze while Sindh won one silver and two bronze.

Army’s Syed Haseeb Tariq (100m freestyle and 100m backstroke) and Azhar Abbas (100m butterfly and 400m individual medley) won two gold medals each on Tuesday. In the men’s hockey competition at the Lala Ayub Stadium in Peshawar, Punjab scored in the final minute to draw 1-1 against powerful Wapda team.

Wapda opened the scoring through Shajeel Ahmed in the 5th minute. Punjab equalized in the 60th minute through Kashif. In another match, Army crushed Sindh 13-1. Mohammad Waqas scored five goals with a hat-trick. Navy had to struggle to beat Balochistan 3-2.

Wapda completely dominated the wrestling event winning nine out of 10 gold medals at stake. The team also won one bronze. Wapda also captured men’s table tennis and women’s team events.

Powerful Navy beat Balochistan 25-5, 25-10, 25-6 while Army got better of KP 25-19, 25-14, 26-24 in the men’s volleyball competition. Wapda got better of Punjab 25-10, 25-14, 25-12.

Army are also leading in the taekwondo event underway in Abbottabad. They won five gold and two silver medals. Wapda with two gold and three silver medals are occupying No 2 position.

In the medals table, Army so far scooped up 73 gold, 57 silver and 34 bronze. Wapda stood at second spot with 40 gold, 41 silver and 29 bronze medals.

Bureau report adds: The athletics championship in the National Games is also in full swing with a number of events decided on the second day. Jaffar Ashraf of Army won the men’s pole vault event with a leap of 4.50m. He was followed by team-mate Gul Faraz (4.40m) and Muhammad Asif of PAF.

Wadpa’s Sohail Amir clocked 31mins 5.86secs to win the men’s 10,000m. Atiqur Rehman of Army was second and Ali Hasan on Navy took the bronze medal.

Maria Maratab of Army followed her national record in triple jump with a gold medal in the women’s long jump. Faiqa Riaz of HEC was second and Wapda’s Amna Siraj third.

Wapda’s Zeenat Parveen took the gold medal with a throw of 11.72m in the women’s shot put. Team-mate Rimsha Khan landed the silver and Army’s Nabeela Kausar of Army got the bronze medal. The women’s 800m gold went to Anila Gulzar of Army while Rabia Ashiq of Wapda and Rabeela Farooq of Army secured silver and bronze medals, respectively.

In the men’s 400m hurdles, Olympian Mehboob Ali of Army finished first and he was followed by Nishad Bhatti and Muhammad Adeel of Wapda. Najma Pervez won the women’s 400m hurdles. Musarat Shaheen and Tehreem Alam of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were second and third, respectively.

Hubab Munir stood first in the women’s high jump while Noureen Fatima of Wapda and Maria Maratab of Army took silver and bronze medals, respectively. The first three positions in the men’s 800m went to Muhammad Ikram (Army), Waqas Akbar and Zeeshan Nazir.