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SHILLONG: Judoka Shah Hussain Shah inflated Pakistan’s gold medal tally to 12 as the South Asian Games came to a close on Tuesday and immediately set sights on qualifying for this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Shah won the men’s -100kg final at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Sports Hall when he overcame Indian Shubham Kumar in a minute and 29 seconds on the last day of competition at the regional extravaganza.
It was the second gold for Pakistan in judo on Tuesday after Fouzia Mumtaz earlier won the women’s -78kg final as the country finished third in the medals table with 106 (12-37-57), behind toppers and hosts India’s 308 (188-90-30) and Sri Lanka’s 186 (25-63-98).
But Shah, currently ranked 46th in IJF rankings, remains Pakistan’s only hope at the Olympics after the hockey team failed to make the cut.
“My aim is to get more than 200 points to qualify for the Olympics,” Shah Hussain, looking to emulate his father; boxer Hussain Shah who won bronze at the 1988 Olympics, told Press Trust of India news agency.
“There’s Pan America in March in Argentina, and the Asian championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in April. I am sure I can make the grade. I want to achieve something for the country like my dad.”
Earlier in a tricky women’s -78kg field, Fouzia edged out India’s Aruna with 210 points to 200 in a round-robin league after the category saw just four contestants.
Fouzia and Aruna had an exciting fight in which the former flipped her rival onto her back for a waza-ari and the score ended 10-0, which ultimately proved crucial in getting her the gold.
There was also a silver for Pakistan on Tuesday after Beenish Khan lost an evenly-contested women’s -70kg final to India’s Pooja in 3:03 minutes while Afzal Bashir claimed bronze in the men’s -90kg event.
Final medals table
(Tabulated under: participating country, gold, silver, bronze, total):
India 188 90 30 308
Sri Lanka 25 63 98 186
Pakistan 12 37 57 106
Afghanistan 7 9 19 35
Bangladesh 4 15 56 75
Nepal 3 23 34 60
Maldives 0 2 1 3
Bhutan 0 1 15 16
Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2016
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Comments (31) Closed
Feb 17, 2016 02:09pm
It now confirms that India is not only a super power in financial and Technical in South Asia, but also in sports. So many sports like IPL, ISL, Pro-Kabaddi, World Hockey leage, international tennis leage, Badminton leage. Indian players getting world class facilities and friends through various games. INDIA SUPER
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Feb 17, 2016 03:46pm
@Nithya Kapur You don't know by showing this bravado you are bringing such an harm to stature of India.It's not Indian culture to show off.You should be magnanimous and humble and should also praise the rivals for giving good opposition.
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Feb 17, 2016 04:15pm
India is power in SAFF like China is in Olympics. Pakistan should have won more gold than Sri Lanka but we usually lose half the medals as our girls don't really participate in all sports.
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Feb 17, 2016 04:16pm
good luck
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Feb 17, 2016 04:20pm
@Waseem Sarwar - Since the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games India has been featuring in the top 5 rankings in the CWG. I guess the improvement started back then.
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Feb 17, 2016 04:29pm
Heartly CONGRATULATIONS to our Gold-medalist Judoka Shah Hussain.
I am very disappointed by the Final medals table: We are miles behind a very small country Sri Lanka and not exceptionally better than war-torn Afghanistan! If we calculate the medals to Population ratio, we are certainly somewhere in the bottom lines.
We have to do something to improve our sports capacities. Sport is an integral part of the development of a Nation.
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Feb 17, 2016 05:09pm
Thanks to all the participants for making this successful. Next year this location will host U19 FIFA tournament Good luck
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Feb 17, 2016 05:32pm
it is safe to play in India. Pakistan cricketers will be safe in india.
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Feb 17, 2016 06:36pm
188 gold vs Pakistani 12 .way to go
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Feb 17, 2016 06:56pm
'Pakistan's gold medal tally to 12 '
With our strong sports talent which is in our genetics, we should have bagged at least 100 golds. The sports minister should be replaced immediately. Some one should be held accountable somehow, somewhere, sometime. Not acceptable.
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Feb 17, 2016 07:00pm
@Nithya Kapur Dont go into the make believe world again, Your financial is $ 500 billion debt, which you are not told about. Technical is only in software and call centers, which is moving to Philippines in droves. The rest of the stuff is all local India , not international. And to really depress you, see last Olympic medal tables and India's pathetic performance from 1.2 billion people. Chill , it could be worse.
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Feb 17, 2016 07:24pm
Congratulations to all winners. Keep up with the true sportsmanship spirit. You win some, you lose some.
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Feb 17, 2016 07:26pm
After looking saf games standing if we put Indians dominance aside,
Sri Lanka population: 2 crore & wins 25 gold total 186
Pakistan population: 20 crore & wins only 12 gold with total 106,
I urge to pakistan authorities to improve their sporting infrastructure otherwise by next game Afghanistan will also overtake pakistan,
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Feb 17, 2016 07:41pm
It was not an impressive performance by Pakistan. Also there was no serious preps and planing. Also with out how can a good performance be generated. Most of the time was wasted by dispute between POA and its rival body which affected the performance of our players. Gaining top position was an uphill task but at least Pakistan should have finished 2nd. Current performance of Pakistan reflects what actually is happening in Pakistan.
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Feb 17, 2016 07:52pm
@Nithya Kapur: India still has to go a very long way to prove your point. A population of 1.2 billion winning 308 medals compared to Pakistan's population of 200 million winning winning 106 medals, better calculate the ratio to judge your position.
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Feb 17, 2016 08:49pm
@Abdulla Hussain why not compare the ratio in gold medals?
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Feb 17, 2016 09:56pm
@Abdulla Hussain This is called escapist attitude.
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Feb 17, 2016 10:13pm
I got a chance to watch some of the games and enjoyed them. I loved the fact that my country (India) was invincible in the majority of the events. But what I liked the most was the attitude of the Afghans boxers, even though they got beaten by Indians in their respective rounds. They were so graceful and so sporty. That touched my heart. I would just say kudos to the second string Indian teams, pitched against the best war horses of South Asia. I liked the grit and determination of Sri Lankan swimmers and athletes, Bhutanese archers, Nepali Footballers and Bangladeshi contingent. I liked the Indo-Pak hockey finals,I am sure the young Indians would have learnt a lot from some of the experienced Pakistani seniors playing against them. This is why we say that sports and music is the soul of the region.
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Feb 17, 2016 11:39pm
Saw him live in the common wealth games at Glasgow. He won a silver there and only lost to the home favourite Scottish lad in the finals. But he was pretty good. He is a strong athlete and should be given opportunities at world stage as much as possible.
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Feb 17, 2016 11:46pm
Have we got anyone confirmed as a partiipant for the Olympics ?
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Feb 18, 2016 03:20am
@Nithya Kapur ...India has 1.25 billion people!!!! Your comparing it with rest of South Asia based on your population.
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Feb 18, 2016 05:15am
@zak
Talk is cheap - see the results for yourself. Stop the conspiracy theories and blame game.
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Feb 18, 2016 08:15am
If the games judges were 100% impartial and neutral without any patriot tilt toward their own host country, India, then the Gold tally would have been more rational. Look at India's total 308 and out of which 188 are gold. That means 61% are Gold medal for India's tally. While second place Sri Lanka's Gold tally is 13% of the total and Pakistan at third place Gold tally is 9%. That sounds fishy and highly skewed in India's favor. Even in Olympics, the ratio of Gold to total medals is not this high, ever. So something is not right. The judges highly favored India, that is an open secret. Judges should be impartial in a fair competition.
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Feb 18, 2016 10:32am
@Abdulla Hussain Just compare your gold winning with sri lanka whose population is 20 million while Pakistan is 200 million still sri lanka ahead of you. Just think of yourself first before pointing to others.
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Feb 18, 2016 10:38am
@zak 500 Billion debt for 2.5 trillion economy is nothing. $500 billion debt with $350 billion foreign reserves is nothing. Most of $500 billion debt is domestic which again is nothing. And if Indians are kept in the dark, how did YOU find out?
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Feb 18, 2016 11:51am
@Games Fan - Nobody is complaining. Not even the Pakistani athletes. The games were broadcasted live on TV. They were played fair and square. And the judges were members from all South Asian countries and not only from India. Some referees were from Thailand and Japan too. So your premise is baseless. I guess you're having a hard time accepting the truth.
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Feb 18, 2016 11:55am
@Games Fan you guys have few golds but a lot of excuses. Too bad there was no competition in coming up with excuses and conspiracies, you guys are surely world champions in that!
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Feb 18, 2016 11:58am
@zak your logic is irrelevant. Australia and many European nations have population less than that of Pakistan and yet they are more advanced in sports and other fields. Asian nations even with lesser population compared to your country are doing great. Now with a population of 200 million people , your country should have excelled in all disciplines. May be most of your countrymen spend 50% of their life in criticizing India and remaining 50% in 'dharnas'. All the best buddy, keep telling yourself the same old thing and there will be a day that there would be no medals at all in any competition for your country.
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Feb 18, 2016 12:21pm
@zak how many time I personally rebuked your claim with stats of Indian GDP still you whin same stuff .are you paid for doing that or are you a illiterate .dude no one here reading dawn is illiterate and they can see truth inspite of your claim .those guy who donot want to see truth or have guts to face reality act like you as if you are in dark
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Feb 18, 2016 02:15pm
@zak Last Olympic medal tables India got 6 medals and we are improving like anything, Don't worry i feel the pain you have towards india , Which is economically surpassing China and US by 2050.This Olympics we will get at least 10 medals.
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Feb 18, 2016 02:27pm
@Jawad Pakistani
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