Navy dominate sailing, Wapda tops tennis, badminton events
KARACHI, April 12: The experienced sailors of Pakistan Navy have maintained a firm grip for winning top honours in the 30th National Games regatta by adding three more gold medals to their tally on Thursday.
The naval sailors have so far collected 5-6-4 medals out of eight events. The best of three Match Racing event is scheduled for Friday.
The pair of former Asian silver medallist Mamoon Sadiq/Rana Waqas gave Navy the Enterprise gold. Hameed Baloch/Najeebullah, also of Navy, settled for silver while Khalil/Haji Raza (Army) earned the bronze.
The Navy won the other two golds through Ashraf Javaid (Laser Radial) and Ashfaq Iqbal (Laser Standard).
Ashfaq’s gold came after a protest which was upheld by the committee.
The other two gold medals went to Xeres Avari/Mahboob (Sindh) in 470 Class and Tanveer (PAF) in Mistral.
Navy had earlier grabbed the Optimist (boys) and Laser 4.7 golds while the Optimist (girls) gold was annexed by PAF.
The canoeists of Pakistan Navy are on way to making a clean sweep of the games canoeing event at the National Sailing Centre on Thursday.
They have run away with all the 10 gold medals that have been decided so far. The remaining five finals are slated for Friday when the competition concludes.
Six teams –Navy, Railways, Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP – are featuring in the event which has been included as demonstration sport. The medals will not be counted in the Quaid-i-Azam trophy.
1-Nadeem, Waseem, Haji Ejaz, Nishat Ahmed (Navy); 2-Yousuf, Abu Baker, Mohammad Akram, Ziadin Qasi (Bal); 3-Rehmat Ali, Murad, Azam, Shahid (Rlys).
BADMINTON
Wapda’s Umer Zeeshan pulled off an upset when he toppled reigning national champion Ahsan Qamar (Sindh) in straight sets to reach the men’s singles final of the badminton event at PSB Coaching Centre on Thursday.
Umer, who lost to Ahsan in the final of the national championship at Lahore in the recent past, avenged his defeat by registering 21-17, 22-20 win.
He now meets his departmental-mate and Pakistan No 1 Wajid Ali who in the other pre-final accounted for Sindh’s Ali Mehdi 21-11, 21-16.
Sindh’s former national junior champion, Sara Khan, also created quite a stir when she whipped reigning national champion Ayesha Akram (Punjab) to cruise in the women’s singles final. She was home 21-12, 13-7 (retd).
She is drawn to meet Wapda’s Asma Butt, the National Games defending champion, who edged past her younger sister Uzma (Wapda) 21-15, 21-16.
The men’s singles, doubles and women’s singles, doubles will be played Friday.
Results:
Men’s singles (semi-finals):
Umer Zeeshan (Wapda) bt Ahsan Qamar (Sindh) 21-17, 22-20; Wajid Ali (Wapda) bt Ali Mehdi (Sindh) 21-11, 21-16.
Assisted by Pakistan’s top player Aqeel Khan, Wapda handed a straight defeat to Army to claim men’s team event gold in the games tennis competition at the CDGK Sports Complex on Thursday.
Aqeel gave Wapda 1-0 lead when he beat his younger brother Yasir 6-3, 6-4 while M. Khaliq completed the rout by getting the better of Taimur 6-0, 6-3.
PAF beat Punjab 2-1 to secure the bronze.
Pre-favourite Nida Waseem cruised in the women’s singles final when she disposed off the challenge from Sara Mahboob 6-4, 6-0 on Thursday.
Nida now meets Natasha Afridi who posted 6-2, 6-4 win over Nyla Khan.