ISLAMABAD: The opening day of events at the National Games on Saturday was marred by chaos and haphazard planning on part of the organisers who failed to provide the media with prompt information about either the results, the team positions or the medals table while Army athletes excelled on the field.

Quite astonishingly, even a simple schedule of the Games, which is essential to know which event is being held at what venue, was also missing and caused a lot of problems for the journalists covering the mega event.

“This shows that the media management and the organisers here are extremely unprofessional and raises serious questions regarding the capabilities of the Interim Olympic Committee which is running the National Games show at the Pakistan Sports Complex,” said one of the photographers present at the venue.

“It was a terrible start to the Games as no one from the organisers was deputed to provide the essential information on the events. We have even failed to get a basic medals table sheet and results of different Olympic sports,” said another media representative.

The National Games organisers did send out independent handouts in Urdu and English about the results of various events but unfortunately no consolidated data sheet of team positions or the medals table was available till the filing of this report.

“There is not time schedule about the events and all we have learnt is through players,” lamented another journalist covering the event. “The media managers here are disorganised and it shows the Interim Olympic Committee in a bad light,” said one of the television reporters covering the events.

Despite various attempts by Dawn to reach the organising officials, none among the Interim Olympic Committee members including its acting chief Asif Bajwa, a former federal secretary, were available to answer the queries or provide relevant information.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Army topped the medals table by securing 12 gold medals according to the information gathered independently by Dawn. Punjab was lying in second spot with four silver medals.

The day started with the women’s cycling event which was won by Pakistan Army cyclists.

Pakistan Army’s Sobia Zahid covered 14km distance in 25 minutes and 66 seconds while Army’s Razia Shabbir took the silver medal by completing the event in 26 minutes and 22 seconds. The bronze medal was grabbed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Nazia Bibi finishing the event with 32 minutes and 5seconds.

In the men’s cycling event, Army’s Mohammad Sajid ended the 42km event with a gold medal after completing the distance in 1:32:45 while Sindh’s Naimatullah covered the distance in 1:04:54. Balochistan’s Habibullah finished the event in 1:07:00 finishing third on the medal’s table with a bronze medal.

In swimming, Pakistan Army swimmers were in full command and won as many as six gold medals in the event. The medals table indicated that Army’s Kiran Khan ended multiple events with three gold medals.

In the squash event, Farhan Zaman (PAF) cruised to the semi-final of the event played at the Mushaf Squash Complex.

Farhan defeated Rishwan (Fata) 11-9, 11-8, 11-7, Nauman Khan (Sindh) crushed Sadamul Haq (Army) 11-4, 11-9, 11-7. Waqas Mehboob (KP) sidelined Zahir Shah (Navy) 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-9. Mansoor Zaman (KP) defeated Shoaib Hassan (Punjab) 11-4, 6-11, 11-7, 1-11, 13-11.

A squash federation official informed that the semi-final of the squash event will be played between Farhan Zaman (PAF) and Waqas Mehboob (KP) while in the second semi-final Saqib Yousuf (Punjab) will be seen in action against Mansoor Zaman (KP). The federation official informed that the final of the squash event will be played on the same day at 1500hrs at the Mushaf Squash Complex.