LOS ANGELES: Pakistan’s Special Olympians did wonders at the cycling competitions held at Long Beach here during Special Olympics World Games 2015, winning as many as four gold medals in the five and two kilometers road races respectively.

Special Olympian Touseef-ul Hasan, who had opened his account with a gold in 10km cycle race, added another gold to his name by winning the 5km race. Touseef’s timing was 11:10:49 and he was followed by Albaloushi Moosa of UAE who bagged a silver while Calmes Ranch of Philippine bagged a bronze.

Victories continued for Pakistan in the 2km cycle races as Uzma Yousuf , Salman Saeed Siddiqui and Sumbal Yousaf added three more gold medals to Pakistan’s account, winning their respective races in brilliant fashion.

Special Olympian Ume Salma Tayyab also stood out on the day as she won a gold in badminton while playing in Group 5 final match, brushing aside her Palestinian opponent in straight sets scores. Her scores were 21-18, 21-12.

In table tennis doubles event Pakistan beat Iran 3-0 and Belarus 3-1 before losing to Chinese Taipei 2-3.

Pakistan had sent four boys and four girls for the athletics events under the guidance of coach Arshad Javed.

On Friday, Amina Irshad competing in division 6 won silver with 2.63 meter jump in long jump event. The gold went to Hidvegi Amanda of Sweden.

Nadir Hussain also bagged silver in 100 meter race in Division 49. His timing was 1.52min.

Nayab Bibi won bronze in 200 meters race in the Division 1, her timing was 00:38:53. Here the gold went to Hydees Jazlyl of Island and silver to Herman Kurshel of St. Lucia.

Mohammad Saqib Waseem finshed fourth in 100 meters while Amina Irshad ended up seventh in 200 meters and Saira Ikram was fifth in 200 meter races in the athletics contests.

Pakistan made significant progress while playing third and fourth position match in the men’s football competition and eventually earned a bronze medal. It was the first ever football medal earned by Pakistan in the World Games history. They beat Nippon 5-3 in an interesting encounter.

Sports Gold Silver Bronze

Swimming 2 2 0

Athletics 1 3 2

Badminton 2 0 0

Cycling 6 2 1

Table Tennis 1 0 1

Tennis 1 0 0

Basketball 0 1 0

Football 0 0 1

Total 13 8 5

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2015

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