KARACHI: Mishael Aisha Ayub couldn’t win a medal for Pakistan at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku on Wednesday. But she did break a national record.

In the women’s 100m butterfly final in the Azeri capital, the 15-year-old swimmer clocked 1:09.27 to finish second-last. However, it beat Kiran Khan’s longstanding national record by 0.50 seconds.

Kiran was also in the final, clocking 1:09.95. She set the record back in 2012 at the Asian Swimming Championships.

Mishael set the record a day after compatriot Bisma Khan set up the country’s best time in 50m backstroke, beating her own milestone by 10 seconds.

Bisma clocked 31.64 in the final on Tuesday, breaking her record from 2015 during the trials for the South Asian Games.

Mishael and Bisma were part of Pakistan’s women’s 4x200m freestyle team — also featuring Kiran — which won bronze on Monday.

“We’re delighted that our swimmers have done well in Baku,” Pakistan Swimming Federation (PWF) secretary Veena Masud told Dawn in a brief statement on Wednesday.

Pakistan women sprinters didn’t have similar luck on Wednesday, with both Sahibe Asra and Najma Parveen finishing last and second-last in the semi-finals of the 200m.

Their male counterparts also fared no better with Liaquat Ali and Mohammad Shehzad failing to make it to the final as well.

There was better news on the table tennis courts where Raheela Asif thrashed her Ivorian counterpart Moh N’Dri Kouadio 4-0 (11-4, 11-4, 11-4, 11-5) to reach the quarter-finals.

Raheela’s team-mate Shabnam Bilal, however, didn’t have a day to savour as she fell by the same score (10-12, 10-12, 5-11, 6-11) to Turkey’s Ozge Yilmaz.

There was also disappointment for Pakistan’s big medal hope Mohammad Nooh Dastagir after the weightlifter could only finish last amongst six competitors in the +105kg final.

Nooh, a gold medallist at last year’s South Asian Games, could only lift a total of 371 kg.

Our Sports Reporter from Lahore adds: Meanwhile, Pakistan’s men and women basketball teams left here for Baku to participate in the Islamic Games.

The men’s team comprises Mohammad Atif, Peram Shahza, Ahmed Jan, Naimat Ullah and coach Malik Riaz while the women’s team consists of Sana, Mehro Khan, Amna Shah, Khadija Shah and coach Nawazish Ali.

The participation of the basketball teams was doubtful, after the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) excluded it from the original contingent at the eleventh hour of its departure — earlier scheduled on May 8 — citing paucity of the funds.

Although the PSB had set up the proper training camps for the basketball teams but it’s decision to exclude it from the contingent disappointed players.

However, the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF) — with the help of sponsors — arranged funds to send the team to Azerbaijan.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2017