ISLAMABAD, April 6: Abdul Rashid and Ata Miran, both struck gold on the tracks of the Jinnah Stadium on Tuesday as Pakistan finished the athletics competitions of the 9th SAF Games with an improved haul of five top of the line medals.
The hosts, who had only two gold medals to show when the Games were last held in Kathmandu in 1999, put up a comparatively good performance this time, winning five events.
One of those was the 110m hurdles in which Rashid roared to victory in 14.33 sec. The silver was also grabbed by Pakistan, Muhammad Shah finishing in 14.41 while Indian Krishna Mohan's time of 14.42 was worth a bronze.
Pakistan's second gold of the day came through the fine effort of Ata in the 1500m who clocked a personal best time of 3:43.40 beating Sri Lanka's Chaminda Wijekoon and Indian Ghamanda Ram.
"I am happy to have won here but I want to earn laurels on a more bigger stage," he told Dawn. "I was always confident of winning gold here and I am delighted that I was able to achieve success in front of my home fans."
Wijekoon's silver was achieved in 3:44.85 while Ram crossed the finish in 3:50.18, bettering his previous time of 3:53.38. Earlier in the competitions, Pakistan had won gold medals through Noushad Khan in the 5000m, Allah Ditta in the 400m hurdles and Nadeem Ahmed who took the honours in hammer throw.
The men's 4x100 relay honours went to India's quartet of Nagraj, Sandeep Sarkaria, Piyush Kumar and Vilash Nalgunde who timed 39.91 with Sri Lanka taking the silver in 40.09 and Pakistan landing the bronze.
Pakistan's Ghulam Abbas bagged a silver in long jump, an event won by India's Mahan Singh who went 7.70m. Abbas leapt 7.60 while Amrit Pal Singh, another Indian clinched the bronze, going 7.59.
The home side earned another silver through Zahid Hussain in the javelin throw whose distance of 74.67 was inferior than Indian Lijesh Kumar's hurl of 75.71. Pakistani Irfan Muhammad's effort of 71.10 got him the bronze.
Sri Lankans achieved glory in the women's 100m hurdles with Sriyani Kulawansa winning comfortably in 13.37 as Indian runners Priya Kadayam and Soma Biswas followed for the silver and bronze clocking 13.84 and 13.88 respectively, times that were also their personal best.
The 4x100 women's relay was won by Sri Lanka in 46.13 with India securing second place clocking 46.21 and Bangladesh winning the bronze in 47.92. The 4x400 relay title went to India who clocked 3:33.49. Sri Lanka were second with a time of 3:44.12 and Pakistan had a bronze in 3:46.10.
In the men's 4x400 relay, Sri Lankans were the victors in 3:05.80 followed by Pakistan who earned the silver with a time of 3:07.03 and India winning the bronze in 3:07.13.
Final medals table (read as gold, silver, bronze, total):
