The performance of the Pakistani contingent in the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, remained pathetic. Three wrestlers and two weightlifters, however, earned some pride for the country.

In wrestling, Muhammad Inam bagged the solitary gold for Pakistan in 86kg weight category, while Tayab Raza and Muhammad Bilal won bronze medals. In weightlifting, two bronze medals came to Pakistan through Nooh Dastgir Butt and Talha Talib in 105kg and 62kg weight categories. Interestingly, of the five medal winners, three are from Gujranwala division.

This division should be hailed for producing world class wrestlers and weightlifters. In these columns, it has been pointed out several times that Punjab has talent in sports which needs to be honed through a comprehensive sports policy. The Punjab government should not run the sports affairs on ad hocism, instead it should hire the services of former gold medalists and foreign coaches to prepare a comprehensive sports policy and train our athletes.

Pakistani contingent could grab just five medals, whereas its arch rival India astonished the world with 59 medals - 25 gold, 16 silver and 18 bronze. India occupies the third place on the medal chart, followed by leaders Australia (85 medals) and England (122 medals). India pushed behind developed countries and states like Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Wales, Scotland. The Indian government has pumped billions of dollars in the sports sector. If the Pakistani government shows interest in the sport sector, good results can be attained in the Asian Games-2018 being held in Indonesia.

Pakistan fielded athletes in 10 sports - table tennis, swimming, squash, boxing, shooting, hockey, badminton, athletics, weightlifting and wrestling.

Squash also presents a dilemma as the country has ruled the world in this sport in the past. The national sport of hockey again failed to earn back its glories. However, this time the national hockey did not face defeat in any match as it drew all its four pool matches before beating Canada to bag the 7th place in the 10-team competition.

The international swimming pool at the Nishtar Sports Complex has become functional. The pool was completed after a considerable delay of almost 10 years at a cost of Rs600 million; its original cost was estimated at Rs160 million. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated the pool some two months back, but it was not functional. Now, 30 people have got its membership and started using the facility. The Punjab government is building sports complexes in 11 National Assembly constituencies of Lahore. In all the complexes, swimming pools are also being built.

Up to 86 professional golfers are in Lahore to the second Nabi Yousuf Memorial Golf Championship at the Royal Palm Club. The event is only confined for the professionals, so, it is high-ranked golf activity, offering a cash prize of Rs2 million for the winners. Top golfers Hamza Amin, M Safdar, Shabbir Iqbal, Zubair Satti, Shafiq Masih, Ali Nqas, Raheel Ikram, Arif Ali, Wisal Khan, M Munir, Shahbaz Masih and Rehmatullah are in the contest.

The first National Junior Squash Championship concluded in Lahore the last week at the Punjab Squash Complex. Overall, 200 squash players, mostly from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and fewer from Balochistan took part in the different age group’s events, including U-15, U-13 and U-11. The boys from Punjab dominated winning the U-15 and U-13 finals. Tayyab Rauf of Punjab won U-15 title beating M Hamza of the KP in the final. In U-13, Usman Nadeem defeated Anus Bukhari in all-Punjab final. In U-11, Abdullah Nawaz of the KP, however, managed to win the title beating Abdullah Nadeem, of Punjab.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2018