KARACHI, July 12: While the men’s and women’s teams performed below par, Pakistani officials achieved much success in the 21st Asian Table Tennis Championships which concluded in Busan, South Korea, recently.

The Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) Executive Board and Congress which met on the sidelines of the regional event, re-elected incumbent vice-president S. M. Sibtain for another term of four years.

In addition, the Congress also elected Khalid Chaudhry as council member while former international player, Irfanullah, was nominated on the panel of veterans committee.

The Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF) treasurer Kifayatullah Khan, who led the delegation and Khalid Chaudhry represented the country at the bi-annual ATTU Congress. Senior international umpire Khawaja Hasan Wadood was on the umpires’ panel who conducted the matches.

As far as performance is concerned, Pakistan men’s team had to be content with 17th position while women finished at the bottom.

As many as 87 players from 20 nations featured in the men’s team event and 74 players from 19 nations participated in the women’s event. The ATTU comprised 44 members federations.

Sibtain attributed non-participation in the last event held at Macau to the reason behind dismal performance and the draws as both teams were ceded at the bottom.

Pakistan could only beat Sri Lanka and Macau 3-1 and 3-0 respectively and lost to Vietnam, Uzbekistan and UAE 0-3, 1-3 and 2-3, respectively in the men’s team event.

As far as women’s are concerned, they lost all their fixtures 0-3 to Macau, 1-3 to Sri Lanka and 0-3 to Vietnam.

Pakistani players also went down in initial rounds in men’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

Sibtain was also honoured to award gold, silver and bronze medals of the men’s doubles.

Pakistan was represented by Asim Qureshi, Yasir Iqbal Bhatti, Bilal Yasin and Saleem Abbas Kazmi (men) while the trio of Shabnam Bilal, Sadia Falak Sher and Ayesha Iqbal Ansari constituted the women’s team.