PESHAWAR: Army accumulating 152 points clinched the National Archery Championship which concluded here at the Qayyum Sports Complex on Wednesday.

Army’s Nadeem Junior, Nadeem Ahmed and Tayyub scored 76, 46 and 30 points, respectively as their team claimed the trophy. Wapda (100 points) came second and Punjab (24) took third position.

Nadeem Junior set a new national record in the men’s individual event, scoring 588 points by hitting 10 pointers eleven times, 9 pointers thirteen times and 8 pointers seven times.

Nadeem Junior, who was also part of the team event and mixed team event by grabbing three gold medals, scored 578 points hitting 10 pointers nine times, 9 pointers eleven times and 8 pointers nine times.

In the women’s individual category, Wapda’s Nighat Khan led the way accumulating 519 points. Nighat, who lost her determination in the first and second round, staged a significant comeback against fellow archers.

Army’s Sumbal Zubair with 500 points, including seven 10 pointers, eight 9 pointers and seven 8-pointers, took second position. International archer Umma Zahra, also of Army, with a total of 497 points remained third with six 10 pointers, seven 9 pointers, seven 8 pointers and 11 time 5 pointers.

Wapda’s Aqsa (462 points) secured fourth position while Sadaf (436), also of Wapda, came fifth.

The mixed event title went to Nadeem Junior and Sumbal of Army. Nighat and Nouman of Wapda seized second position while Punjab’s Saira-Arsalan duo got third.

Wapda won the women’s team event, Army came second and Punjab third.

Ibrahim Shinwari from Landi Kotal adds: Due to the unavailability of sporting gear only one out of the eight contestants from Fata managed to participate in the National Archery Championship that ended in Peshawar on Wednesday, it has emerged.

Manzoor Afridi, president of the Fata Archery Association, told Dawn that the Directorate of Sports and Culture Fata had sent names of archers from the tribal areas for competing in the national championship despite the fact that the officials concerned knew that the above-mentioned archers did not even have bows and arrows to participate in the national event.

Fata’s four players were to compete in the national championship but except for one the rest remained mere spectators watching their colleague in action.

Manzoor revealed that he had to borrow bow and arrows for his lone player from a private archery club of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The said archer from Fata managed to secure fifth position in the competition featuring archers from four provinces and some government departments.

According to Manzoor, said that officials of Fata Secretariat put them to a lot of shame as none of these players had their own sporting equipment. “Almost all these archers receive training at a private center in Peshawar as there is no such facility across Fata.

“We had on a number of occasions and even days before the national championship apprised the Fata sports directorate officials of the unavailability of the gear necessary for participating in an archery competition but they failed to make any arrangements in this regard,” he lamented.

Israr-ul-Haq, a young archer from Jamrud in Khyber Agency who was the only player from Fata to compete on the third and final day of the championship, said all his co-players were very eager to compete at the national level but were deprived of the opportunity due to the unavailability of gear.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2018