October 10, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 27, 1428

KARACHI, Oct 9: Swimmer Bilal Khan turned out to be the day’s hero, grabbing two gold medals in the swimming meet as Pakistan edged Israel for a bronze in tennis competition at the 12th Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Bilal was impressive in the pool and steered the team to victory in 4 x 25 metres relay. He later added the second gold with his solo efforts in 25 metres back stroke. Kainat Riaz also claimed a bronze in 25 metres race.

According to information made available here, Pakistan also made its mark in the track and field when Nowzaira Fatima and Sumaira Shafqat clinched one gold medal apiece at the Shanghai Stadium. While the former leaped to maximum length in the F-09 division of long jump, the latter sprinted to glory in the 100 metres dash.

Besides, the athletes won four silvers through Sundas Hameed and Syed Asad Kazmi in softball throw (an exclusive event for special athletes), Bushra Batool (long jump) and Shahid Hussain (100 metres) and a bronze through Shabbir Hussain (100 metres).

Pakistan’s fifth gold of the day came in the mixed doubles event of table tennis.

Waqas Javed and Imran Ahmed, both from Lahore, teamed up together to beat Japanese pair 21-16, 21-14 in their last match to earn a silver in boys doubles at Buchen Stadium.

Shehla Naz and Zubi gave the country a bronze by overcoming Great Britain opponent’s in girls’ doubles.

In tennis, Pakistan’s pair of Kaleem and Rizwan overcame Israeli combination 5-3, 4-2 to capture bronze in boys’ doubles.

Pakistan ended up with two bronze in basketball. They handed a 14-8 defeat to India to land bronze in boys’ event while fellow countrywomen got the better of hosts China 15-11 for the honours.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is drawn to meet Italy for top honours in bocce team event on Wednesday. They registered two victories against Barbados (16-9) and South Korea (16-6) apart from losing 9-16 to Italy.

By now, Pakistan has excelled by claiming medals in eight of the nine disciplines they are competing in the quadrennial games, the only exception being soccer.