INCHEON: It was a forgettable day for Pakistan at the Asian Games on Monday.

On the third day of competition at the 17th edition of the Games, Pakistan saw their hopes of a medal in the judo event come to an end when Shah Hussain Shah crashed out in the 100kg quarter-finals at the Duwon Gymnasium.

Hours later at the Hwaseong Stadim, the country’s football team suffered a 1-0 loss to China which saw them crash out of the competition after finishing bottom of Group ‘F’.

Pakistan’s fortunes weren’t any better at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium as Abdullah went down 0-2 to India’s Narender Grewal in the men’s 60kg sanda quarter-final of the wushu competition.

The biggest blow, however, came when Shah Hussain, a silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier this year, went down to Kazakhstan’s Maxim Rakov.

The Tokyo-based Shah Hussain, the son of Pakistan’s legendary boxer Hussain Shah, was hoping to match the exploits of his father by winning a medal on Korean soil.

Judoka Shah Hussain, football team crash out

Hussain Shah became Pakistan’s first puglist to claim a bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Almost 26 years later, and some 26km east of Seoul, Shah Hussain went down to Rakov after a fierce two minutes and 19 seconds with the Kazakh winning the fight by ippon with yoko-shiho-gatame.

“I was hoping to repeat my father’s feat but I couldn’t realise my dream,” a dejected Shah Hussain told reporters.

“The standard of judo at the Asian Games is a lot higher than at the Commonwealths.

“Like my countrymen, well-wishers and supporters, I am disappointed with the loss. But it’s a part and parcel of the games. You must keep going,” added the 21-year-old who was making his debut at the Games.

Earlier, Shah Hussain had defeated Afghanistan’s Mohammad Tawfiq Bakhshi to advance to the quarter-finals. Rakov won silver after losing the final to Mongolia’s Naidan Tuvshinbayar.

A day after their hockey counterparts overcame China, Pakistan’s football team couldn’t do the same as they endured a frustrating outing against the Chinese despite having more shots and possession.

Needing only a draw to advance to the knockout round from their group, Chang Feiya’s 20th-minute goal undid Pakistan.

Chang took the ball to the Pakistan by-line, cut inside and fired home from two metres to end Pakistan’s interest in the football competition as they finished bottom of their three-team group following their 2-0 loss to North Korea in their opening match.

Pakistan coach Mohammad Al Shamlan, however, expressed his satisfaction over the performance of his team.

“We lost both games against top opposition like Korea and China by small margins which shows the improvement of the team,” he said.

Pakistan’s fortunes didn’t get any better in the pool as Areeba Shaikh finished sixth in the women’s 50m freestyle heat.

Areeba clocked 31.52 seconds at the Munhak Park Tae-Hwan Aquatics Centre, 5.06 seconds behind the top-placed swimmer in here heat, while her team-mate Simrah Nasir did not start.

PERSONAL BEST

There was, however, a personal best for Minhal Sohail in the women’s 10m air rifle shooting event at Onggnyeon International Shooting Range.

Minhal, making her first appearance at the Games, scored rounds of 120.3, 103.0, 104.4 and a brilliant final round of 104.5 for a cumulative total of 412.1 to finish 22nd amongst 54 competitors in the qualification round.

Pakistan’s other women’s shooter Nadira Raees, though, didn’t have a good day as she ended in 53rd place.

Iranian Najmeh Khedmati won gold in the event.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s baseball team will hope that the disappointments of Monday do not have a spill-over effect when they open their Group ‘A’ campaign against Japan at the Munhak Baseball Stadium.

Pakistan finished fifth at the last edition of the Games at Guangzhou four years ago and are hoping to improve their standing in the eight-team event.

Along with Japan, Pakis­tan will also face China and Mongolia in their group and Pakistan Baseball Fede­ra­tion (PBF) president Kha­war Shah was hopeful of good results this time around.

“We may not be in the medal contention but if our players excel and won at least won two group matches, we can reach the semi-finals,” Khawar said on the eve of Pakistan’s opening match.

After the first game, Pakistan will face Mongolia on Wednesday before their final group match against China the following day.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd , 2014