ISLAMABAD: Seven gold medals in track and field and five in judo events on the opening day of competition at the Quaid-i-Azam Inter-provincial Youth Games saw Punjab top the medals table on Tuesday.

With 34 medals overall, comprising 14 gold, 12 silver and eight bronze, Punjab had a comfortable lead over second-placed Balochistan (5-7-11) and third-placed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (5-2-9).

Sindh (4-5-3) are fourth ahead of Fata (2-3-6) with Gilgit Balitistan far away in sixth with their lone gold in judo making up a grand total of three medals. Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir are tied at the bottom with identical records of a silver and four bronze.

Sindh’s sprinters left everyone trailing in their wake as they completed a men’s-women’s 100m double, adding to the men’s 800m won by Umar Sadat who won in a time of 2:01:60, narrowly edging Balochistan’s Iftikhar Ahmed (2:01:94).

There was an even smaller margin of victory in men’s 100m as Abdul Moeed Baloch finished in 10.92 to just shade Laeeq Naveed from Punjab by 0.03 seconds.

The margin of victory was more pronounced in the women’s race as Shafaq Afreen’s time of 13.26 saw her finish comfortably ahead of Punjab’s Torab Zehra (13.38).

Balochistan were also on fire on the track, winning three gold medals thanks to Nasir Ali’s victory in 16:08:70 in the men’s 5000m and a double in the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles courtesy Amir Ali and Beenish respectively.

Punjab clinched only two golds on the track — Saba winning the women’s 1500m in 5:28:94 while Rubab took the women’s 100m hurdles — but it was in the field events where they showed their supremacy.

Mahnoor won both the women’s shot put and javelin throw, Sunaina won the women’s long jump, Mohammad Yasir grabbed gold in the men’s javelin throw, while Afzal Ahmed’s leap of 1.85m saw him triumph in the men’s high jump.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also won two gold medals in athletics as Shoaib Khan won the long jump with a distance of 7.19m while Zohaib Khan’s throw of 13.20m saw him grab victory in men’s javelin.

At the Mushaf Squash Complex, Khyber Paktunkhwa were utterly dominant in the women’s singles event as Laiba Ijaz overcame team-mate Nimra Aqeel 11-6, 12-10, 11-8 in the final.

“I dedicate this to Pakistan squash great Qamar Zaman because I’m here thanks to his involvement at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Women’s Squash Academy,” Laiba — the country’s top-ranked women’s under-15 player, said.

Punjab, meanwhile, showed their supremacy at the Biomechanical Lab Hall where their judokas came out on top.

Hogan won the men’s 50kg title, Umar Mukhtar claimed gold in the men’s 66kg while Faisal took the top honours in the open weight.

The women judokas added two more golds to that tally with Saba triumphant in the 40kg category and Mufsal winning the 44kg.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata shared two golds each — Waheed (men’s 60kg) and Shah Rukh (women’s 36kg) for the former and Ahsan (men’s 55kg) and Nadia (women’s 48kg) for the latter — while Gilgit Baltistan’s Sammiya won the first gold for her province in the women’s open weight.

Two golds in karate rounded of Punjab’s tally for the day as Memoon Qadir triumphed in the women’s individual kata and Memoona, Saira and Ayesha combined to grab the women’s team kata.

Balochistan also won two karate gold medals courtesy Asmatullah in men’s 50kg and Nazeer, Ashfaq and Aziz in men’s team kata.

Mohammad Murad of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa grabbed gold in the men’s -55kg event while Syed Shahnoor of Sindh was the winner in the men’s individual kata.

Sindh have a good chance of winning the snooker title with Haris Nadeem and Umer Memon both making it to the semi-finals. Umer beat Balochistan’s Saif Ali Khan 2-0 while Haris overcame Usman Ahmed of Punjab 2-0.

Punjab’s Mubashir Raza also advanced into the semis when he beat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mohammad Rafiq 2-0 and Amir Sohail of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa completed the last-four line up when he got past Rabish Parwiaz of Balochistan by the same score.

The semi-final line-up of the snooker team event was also decided with Punjab, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh making the final four.

The final four in men’s netball was also confirmed on Tuesday with Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa booking their berths.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2017