13th South Asian Games: Haroon, Rab Nawaz, Naeem, Maaz, Sajid add to Pakistan’s gold tally

KARACHI: The country’s top taekwondo fighter Haroon Khan, his teammate Rab Nawaz, 110 metre hurdler Mohammad Naeem and wushu fighters Maaz Khan and Sajid Hussain won gold medals on the fifth day of the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal on Thursday which took the country’s overall gold tally to 16.

Till filing of the report Pakistan had claimed 16 gold, 22 silvers and 29 bronze medals.

Haroon Khan, who is expected to win an Olympic seat next year, lived up to the billing when he downed India’s Niraj Choudhary 27-18 in the men’s 58kg final.

Haroon recently featured in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Event test in Tokyo. He has a record of beating the world’s top fighters during his promising career.

Rab Nawaz secured gold when he beat Nepal’s Kiran Bdr Ale 33-7 to enable taekwondo squad to finish its journey with three gold, six silvers and eight bronze medals. Shahzeb is the other gold medallist in taekwondo.

The country’s promising hurdler Mohammad Naeem clinched gold in 110m hurdles by clocking 14.30 seconds of timing. This is the second gold in athletics as sprinter Uzair-ur-Rehman had clinched gold in 200 metre on Wednesday.

Sahib-e-Asra claimed bronze in 400m with a timing of 54.58 seconds.

In wushu Pakistan did a solid job when it snared two more gold and four silvers, finishing with three gold, four silver and four bronze.

The country’s top seed Maaz Khan (minus 75kg) and Sajid Hussain (minus 80kg) took gold medals. Amjad Ali had taken gold on Wednesday. Farhan Ali took silver in minus 52 kg when he was undone by India’s Sunil Singh in the final. In minus 60kg, Maira Karamat of Pakistan claimed silver, losing to India’s Roshibina Devi in the final. Shahzeb Khair (minus 70kg) and Sundas (minus 65kg) were the others who took silvers in wushu in Kathmandu.

Pakistan defeated Bangladesh 37-21 in men’s kabaddi outing.

In beach volleyball in Pokhara, Pakistan A, featuring Zarnab and Afaq, and Pakistan B, featuring Razzaq and Waseem, defeated both Nepal and Bangladesh. Pakistan A beat Nepal A 2-1 and Pakistan B edged past Nepal B 2-0. Pakistan A prevailed over Bangladesh A 2-0 and Pakistan B defeated Bangladesh B 2-1.

In men’s handball opener in Pokhara, Pakistan were off to a superb start when they downed Nepal 43-19. In women handball, Pakistan edged past Maldives 32-27.

In swimming it was not a good opening day for Pakistan as the nation failed to grab any medal.

In men’s 200m freestyle final, Pakistan’s Mohammad Babar finished seventh out of eight contestants with 2:04.93.

In women’s 200m freestyle final, Pakistan’s Jehanara Nabi ended sixth with 2:17.79. Pakistan’s Mohammad Mustafa finished sixth in 200m breaststroke final with a timing of 2:37.34. In women’s 200m breaststroke final, Mishael Ayub finished fifth with 2:54.38 timing.

In men’s 100m butterfly, Pakistan’s Azhar Abbas ended sixth with 59.25. In women’s 100m butterfly, Bisma Khan edned fifth with a timing of 1:06.45. In men’s 400m freestyle relay, Pakistan ended fourth and in women 400m freestyle relay Pakistan ended fourth.

In shooting, the trio of Ghufran Adil (616.6 points), Zeeshan-ul-Farid (617.6 points), and Aqib Latif (612.2 points) scored 1846.4 points to win bronze medal.