GUJRANWALA, Feb 13 Four youths of Gujranwala won gold medals in wrestling, judo and weightlifting and three others earned silver medals in athletics in the recently-concluded South Asian Games in Dhaka, but they were not given any protocol at the national level.

One of these players won the gold medal in wrestling for the fourth time, while his brother completed his hattrick of winning medals this year.

Muhammad Umer of Sheranwala Bagh won the title of wrestling champion in the South Asian Games for the fourth time in the 96kg category, while his brother Muhammad Ali completed hattrick of his victories this year by winning the title of wrestling champion in these games in the 74.5kg category. Umer and Ali's brother Muhammad Suleman got silver medal in wrestling in the 66kg category.

The third gold medallist of South Asian Games is Tanvir Pehlwan who earned laurels for Pakistan in judo karate. The fourth gold medallist, Muhammad Usman, excelled in weight lifting in the 94kg category. Sajjad Amin and Matiur Rehman are silver medallists in weightlifting in 69kg and 105kg categories, respectively.

Talking to media here on Saturday, these 'ignored' national heroes expressed their disappointment at the attitude of the government and higher authorities. They said they played for their country, but no one bothered to congratulate them or encourage them.

They said Asif Ali Zardari was the president of Pakistan, not Karachi alone. They said they deserved praise and prizes like Naseem Hameed and Sara Nasir and added that their economic conditions would compel them to quit their games if the authorities did not shun this discriminatory attitude and come to their rescue.

Chaudhry Shabbir Husain, the coach of these gold and silver medallists, said an institution should be established here to promote weightlifting, wrestling and judo karate and hunt the talent for these games from this city.—Correspondent