February 7, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 8, 1427

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LAHORE, Feb 6: Pakistan’s top seed Wajid Ali won the Al-Fajr Cup in Tehran, Iran, defeating Ali Hussaini of the host country in the final, according to reports reachingh here.

Wajid won the final 22-20, 20-18 (according to new scoring system).

Ahsan Qamar, another Pakistani player, also showed impressive performance, as he reached the quarterfinals stage before he was ousted while Zeeshan Omar tasted defeat in the initial stages.

The Pakistani pair of Atiq Chaudhary and Rizwan Azam was beaten in the doubles’ prefinals.

Before departing to Iran, Wajid also earned honour at domestic level, claiming triple crown in the national championship held in Lahore in the last week of January.

He won the singles and doubles’ title and claimed another gold as part of Wapda team which won the team event.

Meanwhile, Pakistan men’s and women’s teams will take part in the Thomas Cup/Ober Cup Asia Zone to be held in Jaipur, India from Feb 13 to 19.

Eight men and as many women will cross the Wagah Border on Feb 12.

Men: Wajid Ali, Zeeshan Omer, Ahsan Qamar, Ali Yar Beg, Rizwan Rana, Rizwan Aslam, Shabbar Hussain and Atiq Chaudhary.

Women: Asma Butt, Ayesha Akram, Uzma Butt, Farzana Ali, Saima Manzoor, Sara Khan, Zahida Ali, Farzana Shaheen. Tariq Farooq will act as coach while Tayyab Sohail as assistant. Waqas Masood is named as manager.