KARACHI: Local athletes continued their impressive run as they defied scorching heat and unbearable conditions to maintain their stranglehold in the men’s and women’s track and field events at the PSB Coaching centre tartan track on Friday.

Karachi athletes have so far fetched 17-10-7 medals to led the six-team table and are way ahead of Hyderabad who have grabbed 2-6-5 medals so far. Benazirabad had earned the remaining one gold as 20 finals have been decided.

Promising Sehrish did Karachi proud setting a new Sindh Games mark by capturing the 3000 metres gold. She clocked 13:14.75 for the feat erasing the previous record of14:11.06 established by Koshila Kumar of Hyderabad in the year 2000.

The competing athletes were the worst suffers as they rubbed their shoulders with mercury touching 36 degree centigrade. This correspondent witnessed many men and women athletes fell at the finishing line due to exhaustion.

The athletic meet of the Sindh Games is organised by the Sindh Sports Board due to two warring factions of Sindh Athletic Association (SAA).

“I felt sorry for not arrannging drinking water for athletes as the organisers gave me a check of meagre amount of Rs15,000 which was bounced once and I’d deposited it again to be clear after the games on Monday,” a dejected Abdullah Chandio, who was officiating the meet told Dawn.

He said the technical officials were provided a jersey only on the second day of the event.

“The government had earmarked approximately Rs46 million for the games and athletics, which is mother of sports, had got peanut which is sheer injustice,” he complained.

A deaf and dumb athlete from Mirpurkhas Qamraz, in a yellow track suit, had to run 400m thrice in a day — first heat, followed by final and 4x400m relay which is sheer injustice. She was no alone to do so.

Qamraz, who is an all round athlete having won a gold in women’s taekwondo, looked determined while trying to explain to Dawn through her actions and officials.

Neither there was strating gun nor the camera to determine photo-finish results. An ugly situation emerged in the absence of photo-finish camera and two athletes were awarded silver in women’s 200 metres final, protested Mirpurkhas official Iqbal Hussain.

Men’s and women’s squash events which are being played on round robin basis, have reached the final stage. Karachi takes on Hyderabad in the last men’s and women’s fixtures to determine gold and silver at the Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan Squash Complex on Saturday.

Similarly, Karachi and Hyderabad have set a date for the men’s and women’s netball finals to be played at Mini Sports Complex Nazimabad on Saturday.

In the two men’s semi-finals, Karachi outplayed Mirpurkhas 27-9 while Hyderabad gets the better of Larkana 11-2.

In women’s, Karachi taught Benazirabad a lesson winning 12-1 while Hyderabad romped home 7-1 over Mirpurkhas.

In men’s hockey, holders Karachi overcome Larkana 2-0, thanks to brace by Waseem Aslam to qualify for the men’s hockey final at the Abdul Sattar Hockey Stadium.

Karachi is slated to face Hyderabad in Saturday’s final after the latter brushed aside Sukkur 7-0 in the other semi-final.

Meanwhile, this correspondent faced difficulty to arrange the resuts as no official results were provided to Dawn.

Athletics:

Women’s:

3000m: 1-Sherish (Kar), 2-Aisha (Kar), 3-Narmina Ali (MPK) Time: 13:14.75 (NR).

400m: 1- Eisha Iffan (Kar), 2-Marzia Rasheed (Kar), 3-Kiran (Hyd) Time: 01:07.83.

Long jump: 1-Fatima Sana (Kar), 2-Erum (MPK), 3-Kulsoom (Suk) Dist: 04.19m.

Javelin throw: 1-Hina Rafiq (Hyd), 2-Sana Rafiq (Hyd), 3-Hina Moin (Kar). Dist: 26.52m.

Men’s:

10,000M: 1-M. Amjad (Kar), 2-Arbab Tanoli (Kar), 3-Mohibullah (Suk) Time: 39:01.00.

400m: 1-Ali Shan (Kar), 2-Mohsin (Kar), 3-Kahaar (Hyd) Time: 52.36.

Long jump: 1-Shehryar (Benazirabad), 2-Amir Hayat (Kar), 3-Shakeel Ahmed (Kar). Dist: 05.67m.

Javelin throw: 1-Sujawal Khan (Kar), 2-Shakeel Ahmed (Kar), 3-Khalid Mahmood (Suk) Dist: 50.34m.

Squash:

Men’s team event:

Sukkur bt Larkana 3-0: Syed Humam Ahmed bt Athar Javaid 11-1, 11-6,.11-2;Muawwiz Bin Raza bt Ameer Hamza 11-2, 11-5, 11-5; Ismail bt Areez Mushtaque 11-0,11-0.11-0.

Hyderabad bt Mirpurkhas 3-0: Shahzeb bt Dr. Zaffar Kamali 11-4, 11-8, 11-6 Siafullah bt S. Rehan 11-1, 11-3, 11-4; Salman bt M. Mohsin 11-0, 11-0, 11-0.

Karachi bt Mirpurkhas 3-0: Noman Khan bt M. Mohsin 11-3, 11-1, 11-2; Sikandar Khan bt S. Rehan 11-2, 11-5, 11-5;Jahangir Khan Jr. bt Dr. Zaffar Kamali 11-2, 11-4, 11-6.

Benazirabad bt Larkana 2-1: Syed Irfan Ali bt Athar Javaid 11-8, 11-4, 11-5; M. Ahmed bt Areez Mushtaque 11-9, 11-6, 4/11, 11-4; Haider Ali lost to Ameer Hamza 5-11, 5-11, 6-11.

Hyderabad bt Sukkur 2-1: Shazaib bt Muawwiz Bin Raza11-5, 11-2, 11-3; Sharoon Saleem lost to Humam Ahmed 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 5-11; Saif bt M. Ismail 11-2, 11-7, 11-8.

Karachi bt Larkana 3-0: Jahangir Khan bt Akhtar Javaid 11-0, 11-0, 11-1; Sikandar Khan bt Areez Mushtaq 11-0, 11-0, 11-0; Junaid Rehman bt Ameer Hamza 11-0, 11-0, 11-0.|

Hyderabad bt Benazirabad 3-0: Shazaib bt M. Ahmed 11-4, 11-4, 11-8; Saifullah bt Hyder Ali 11-1, 11-0, 11-1; Salman bt Syed Irfan 11-1, 11-2, 11-1.

Women’s team event:

Hyderabad bt Sukkur 2-1: Umme Habiba Ishaque bt Shoita 11-0, 11-3, 11-3; Tayaba Ishaque bt Esha Ansari 11-6, 12-10, 11-6; Mahrukh Sherali lost to Iqra 0-11, 0-11, 0-11.

Karachi bt Hyderabad 3-0: Zahab Khan bt Habiba Altaf 11-5, 11-1, 11-3; Anum Aziz bt Tayab Altaf 11-1, 11-2, 11-2; Mehwish Ayoob bt Mahrukh Sherali 11-0, 11-0, 11-3.

Netball:

Semi-finals (men’s): Karachi bt Mirpurkhas 27-9; Hyderabad bt Larkana 11-2.

Semi-finals (women’s): Karachi bt Benazirabad 12- 1; Hyderabad bt Mirpurkhas 7-1.

Hockey (men’s) semi-finals:Karachi bt Larkana 2-0, Hyderabad bt Sukkur 7-0.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018