Another disappointing day passed for Pakistani athletes as medal drought continues for the second consecutive day in the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games being played at different World Class venues part of the City Olympic village on Sunday.
It was a disappointing day for the swimming, kicking boxing, wrestling and snooker squad as none of them could put on an impressive show, losing their events in a one-sided affair. Only Maaz Khan in the -75kg weight category has qualified for the semi-finals to be played on Monday while the rest of Kickboxing players of Pakistan have lost their matches in one-sided affairs.
Maaz Khan will face Hossein Karami of Iran in the Men Full-Contact -75kg weight. The officials of the Pakistan Kickboxing were expecting more but none of the players could reach to their expectation. In the -51 weight category Catalan Robin of Philippines upset Liaqat Ali of Pakistan on points and will now face Hamza Abu Ghazeh of Jordan in the Low Kickboxing 51kg medal match. In the other match, Yousef Qawasmeh of Jordan beat Shafiqur Rehman by 13-3 in Men full Contact -57kg.
In the Men Freestyle Wrestling 57kg Koyangi Kazuya of Japan defeated Muhammad Bilal alias Bili Bahalawan of Punjab, Pakistan by 12-1 points. The Japanese wrestlers did not give much time to Pakistan’s Bilal to strike back and thus moved on to semi-finals.Inam in the 86, Abdul Wahad in the 61kg freestyle, Azhar Hussain in 59kg, Shoukat Ali in 56kg and Muhammad Umair in 98kg Greece Roman Wrestling will play on Monday.
There was also unsatisfactory result in the swimming as well wherein Bisma Khan of Pakistan got sixth position in the heat of Women’s 50m Butterfly with his time 30.72sec, followed by Pakistan Aisha Mishael Ayub who got the seventh position with his clock time 31.12sec. In the Men’s 50 Butterfly heat Pakistan Farrukh Shahzad got 7th position with clock time 28.38sec, in the Women’s 100m Backstroke Heat Jahanara Nabi got 8th position with her time 1.18.58sec, in the Men’s 100m Backstroke Heat Pakistan despite got first position when Waqas timed 1.02.77sec but failed to play the final and in the Men free style 4X50m freestyle relay Pakistan got 7th position with clock time 1.47.37sec. Muhammad Yahya Khan, Muhammad Hamza Malik, Farrukh Shahzad and Waqas Hussain represented Pakistan in the relay.
Now Pakistan swimmers – comprising Jehanara Nabi and Bisma Khan – will play in the 100m IM, Farruk and Yahya will play in Men 100m IM, Aisha and Bisma Khan in Women 100m freestyle, Ramsha Imran in Women 50m Backstroke and 50m breaststroke, Bisma and Jahanara in 100m IM and in 4X100m IM and Men 100m IM wherein Yahya and Farrukh will be taking part.
The team of Pakistan comprising Asiah, Ramsha, Jehanara and Bisma has given a disappointing performance by recording 7th position in the 4X50m freestyle relay. Aysha and Bisma will play in 100m freestyle final, Rimsha will play in 50m breaststroke while Pakistan Men and Women will play in 4X100 Medley Relay on Monday.
It was a poor performance shown by Pakistan snooker squad and only winning bronze by Sajjad, the former World No.2 in 6-Red Singles, he along with other players Asjad and Muhammad Bilal failed and were beaten by minnows of the games surprisingly.
In the 15-Red Singles, Sajjad tasted another defeat at the hands of Issara Kachaiwong of Thailand in one-sided affairs by 4-1 frames. The score was 64-45, 29-89, 87-15, 63-4 and 88-10. Thailand’s Issara recorded a break of 34, 22, 59, 60 and 58 in the five frames, while Sajjad registered a break of 33, 35, 15, 4 and 6 points.
