10 April 2004	Saturday	19 Safar 1425

ISLAMABAD, April 9: Pakistan and India almost evenly shared the honours when it came to one-on-one contests in the just-concluded 9th SAF Games. With its 42 gold medals this time, Pakistan registered an impressive four-fold increase from the 10 golds it won at the 8th edition of the SAF Games at Kathmandu (Nepal) in September, 1999.

Pakistan finished runners-up, behind India, on medals table while they had ended up 4th at Kathmandu. Sri Lanka (15 golds) and Nepal (7) trailed at 3rd and 4th spots this time as compared to their 3rd and 2nd positions respectively last time.

The post-event statistics reveal that Pakistan captured at least 15 of their 42 golds at 9th SAF Games in face-to-face competitions between the two rivals in disciplines such as boxing (5), weightlifting (5), wrestling (3), football (1) and rowing (1).

India too won almost as many (15) of the direct contests with Pakistan in weightlifting (3), wrestling (3), badminton (2 team events), table tennis (2 team events), volleyball, kabaddi, rowing and women squash (1 each).

India eventually hauled up 101 golds overall (besides 59 silver and 39 bronzes) - one less than its tally at Kathmandu. This was a far cry from the prediction of Indian Chef-de-Mission Balgit Singh Sethi that his contingent would get away with 150 golds.

The chief reason for India falling short of prediction was that the home players reasserted their prowess in disciplines such as boxing and weightlifting and came close to making a clean-sweep in rowing - the discipline which made its debut at SAF Games - besides almost evenly sharing honours with India in wrestling.

Karate also emerged as the strong forte this time for the Pakistanis who snatched seven out of nine golds at stake in this discipline. But it were the Nepalese, not the Indians, who were at the receiving end in karate.

Nepal had won eight karate golds at home turf in 1999 but could take hold of just one gold medal this time. Pakistan's big inroads into karate led their Iranian coach to declare that green-shirts would soon be an Asian force to reckon with in this discipline.

India owed its pole position in overall medal standings to the disciplines of athletics, swimming and shooting - the three medals-rich disciplines with 32, 35 and 30 golds (97 overall) on offer. All the three disciplines also featured women's disciplines.

The Indian girls' superiority in these games was reflected in their clean-sweep of all 16 golds in ladies swimming. The ladies events had 13 golds in athletics and 10 in shooting. Besides, taekwondo, table tennis, squash, and badminton also carried a number of ladies and two "mixed" events.

However, the competitions in athletics, swimming and shooting may not have been strictly within the pale of one-on-one contests. Pakistanis lost their matches to their Indian rivals in all the four team events, two each in badminton and table tennis, as well as in finals of team sports of volleyball and kabaddi.

Pakistan bounced back by beating India in the final of third team discipline at SAF Games - football - a few hours after losing the kabaddi final on Monday evening. The following day, a day before the Wednesday's closing ceremony, Pakistanis bagged 10 gold medals in boxing winning all their bouts in the finals with five of them coming against the Indians.

Pakistani weightlifters were also back to their winning ways by clinching five, as against India's three, out of a total of eight golds. In the process, the Pakistani weightlifters put to rest the memories of 1999 when they were beaten by Indians in gold medal combats of all eight weight categories.

Brothers Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Umer and Muhammad Usman made Pakistan proud by winning against their Indian rivals. However, Pakistanis lost the same number of contests on grappling mat against the Indians.

In rowing, Pakistanis won all but one of seven golds. Indians, however, were in fray for only two events, winning one and losing another against Pakistanis. Pakistan altogether won 147 medals, including 55 silver and 50 bronzes, as compared to India's overall 191. -APP